Originals in a personal folder, will they be deleted?

Question

When I first got my mac a year and a half ago I played with iPhoto end up making it a mess. Basically I want to delete all my folders, pictures, etc. and start over. I have my original pictures on my hard driver under the following folders, "Leigh (HD name)/Jennifer/Photographs" and under here I have everything organized by other folders.
My concern is if I delete everything from iPhoto, it will delete my originals under my "Photographs" folder. If I start from scratch and delete everything, will my originals from the "Photographs" folder be deleted as well?
Thank You
Jennifer

Answer 1

The iPhoto Library folder contains 3 primary subfolders which hold the image files, and the database keeps the 3 versions linked together:
Data - contains the tiny thumbnails used by iPhoto for efficient display. These files are of no use to you outside of the iPhoto Library.
Originals - contains the original, full-sized files (images and movie files), exactly as you imported them to your library. They are always preserved. These are the files you need to save if you don't have a copy elsewhere.
NOTE: If there are alias files in this folder, then you have a referenced library, and iPhoto has been reading the files from your personal folders outside of the iPhoto Library folder.
Modified - contains the changed or edited version of a photo, including the rotated versions of photos rotated by a camera's auto-rotate feature. Also contains a jpeg version of the first frame of each movie file, for displaying in your library. In most cases these do not have to be saved. The exception is if you have invested a lot of time in editing the photos.
What do you have in iPhoto Preferences > Advanced for +"Copy files to iPhoto Library folder when importing to library"+ ? That option is selected by default, when the original image files are stored inside the iPhoto Library folder. If it has been turned off, then importing photos causes iPhoto to create an alias file inside the Originals folder.
How can I tell if the "original" file is the one in my personal folder or in the iPhoto Library folder?
If you saved photos to your personal folder system, then imported into iPhoto with the above preference turned ON, then iPhoto copied the files. That gives you one set in your library, and one outside. Unless you Trashed the files in your personal folders, then they remained there. iPhoto has no ability to delete files that aren't stored inside the iPhoto Library folder (even with a referenced library).
If the Originals folder contains alias files, then iPhoto has been reading the images directly from your personal folders.
If there's a chance that you don't have a copy of some of your iPhoto files saved outside of the Library folder, then don't trash your Library just yet. Instead, Quit iPhoto and move the iPhoto Library folder to your Desktop and rename it "iPhoto Library broken." Hold down the Option key as you launch iPhoto, select +Create Library+ and open the new empty library. Be sure to set iPhoto's Preference to +"copy files..."+ and begin importing your photos from your personal folders. Then import the Film Roll folders in the Originals folder from the broken iPhoto Library. iPhoto will probably not recognize duplicate images as duplicates, because the location and file names will probably differ. You may have to go through and trash the photos that you don't need. (Empty the iPhoto Trash in batches of 500 or less to prevent iPhoto from crashing.) Or you can check out the application [Duplicate Annihilator|http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26250] and see if it can effectively cull out the copies from your library. If you do, be sure back up the library first, in case the results are unsatisfactory.
Regards.