Backup all images in all folders to exHD, not just iPhoto

[brandon1]

I have been tasked with backing up all photos on someone else's old Macbook (10.6.8). I excluded the Pictures folder and any cloud folders from a Spotlight search and came up with about 1700 photos which I moved to the external HD. If I include the Pictures folder in my Spotlight search, over 80,000 images are found, too many to drag and drop in one pass. How can I be sure I am getting all photos moved over to the exHD if I must make passes of 20,000 a time? Is there any way to preserve the existing file structure while doing this so I don't end up with 80,000 images in one folder?

iPhoto only shows around 12,700 images, so if I simply export this, I will not be capturing all photos. There is only one iPhoto library.

I also have to backup Picassa which I was planning on doing via this method:
http://www.gilsmethod.com/how-to-backup-your-picasa-database-in-mac-os
Tips here would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

The easiest way to backup everything is to simply run Time Machine. If you want to preserve the file structure of iPhoto, then copy the iPhoto Library itself to the external drive. The iPhoto Library probably doesn't contain 80K images - that number includes edits and thumbnail images.

-Is there a specific reason you only want to back up just the photos?
-Are you trying to back up the mages in separate folders outside of the iPhoto Library?

C

 

[brandon1]

I was asked to only back up photos because that is the only thing that was desired to be transferred to a newer Mac (along with the Picasa data).

For some reason, pictures were definitely not all showing in iPhoto. Part of this I'm sure is because all the pictures weren't in the Pictures folder, but not even all the pictures in the Pictures folder were showing in iPhoto.

I actually resolved this (in a bit of a 'duh' moment) but right clicking the Pictures folder, copying, and then pasting the folder to the ex-HD. This preserved the file structure. For some reason, when I copied it this way, the OS had no problem moving all 80K+ pictures in one process. I then found where I could alter the "All Images" Spotlight search in System Preferences to exclude the Pictures folder, which then found only a handful of additional photos, which I was able to copy to the ex-HD in one process as well.

I just hope there are no issues connecting the Picasa DB back to the pictures on the new computer.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries...glad you found a solution.

C