[dennett]

I just got a new iMac and I want to move my photo library from my G4 Powerbook to it. I figured out the "add to library" on the new iPhoto, but I am not sure where the information is in my old system to move. The "pictures" folder in my user area is very confusing and has a whole lot of sub-folders in the iPhoto library.
I have an airport network, but I also have a 200 gb firewrire hard drive.
What is the best way to move these photos? I tried to "export" them from my old iPhoto and use the airport network and it said it would take 78 hours, so then I tried my external hard drive and my old system says there's not enough memory (but I have 150 gb space on the external drive so I figure it is talking about my powerbook).
Do I export them from my old iPhoto or do I transfer the entire library?
My iPhoto library is large (6000 photos).
Finally I noticed that I have several images that have the same file name (although they are not duplicate photos) which is also causing problems.
This is a big mess - I need some advice about how to do this properly. Thanks!

[JKT]

Assuming that iPhoto on the iMac and Powerbook are both the same version*:

1. Quit iPhoto on both machines if you haven't already.

2. Shut down the Powerbook then join the two computers together using a FireWire cable (I assume you have one already as you have an external drive).

3. While holding down the T key on the PowerBook, restart it (this will boot it in FireWire Target Disk Mode - you should see a dancing, yellow FireWire icon on a blue background on the PowerBook screen if you have done it properly... keep the T key held down until you see this).

4. The PowerBooks hard drive will appear as a mounted external drive on the iMac. Copy the entire iPhoto Library folder from your Powerbook /Users/yourusername/Pictures folder to the same location on the iMac (overwrite the version on the iMac assuming you haven't any new photos in iPhoto already)**.

5. Once the copy has completed (which will presumably take a while with that many photos!), eject the Powerbook's hard drive from the iMac. You can now disconnect it and reboot normally.

6. Launch iPhoto on the iMac and you should see all your photos.

* If they aren't the same version, presumably the iMac will be more current than the PowerBook. When you do the above and launch the iMac's iPhoto, it will also spend some time updating the library files.

** If you already have some photos in iPhoto on the iMac, you can copy the iPhoto Library from the PowerBook to an alrenative location on the iMac, and hold down the option key as you launch iPhoto to pick which Library you want to open. Alternatively, export the photos from iPhoto on the iMac to somewhere else and do the above then re-import them into your complete Library.

[JKT]

Your images will have the same file name because they are assigned by your camera and not iPhoto - e.g. DSCF0001.jpg (or whatever). When you import them into iPhoto the filenames are not changed. So when you wipe the memory card on your camera, the next set of photos will start again at DSCF0001.jpg (or whatever).


The file organisation in the iPhoto Library is as follows:

/iPhoto Library/year/month/day/the photos from that day of that month of that year.

So e.g. a photo taken today will appear as e.g. /iPhoto Library/2005/09/12/DSCF0001.jpg

One taken at the same time last year would appear as /iPhoto Library/2004/09/12/DSCF0001.jpg

Also, when you create Albums, aliases to photos will be generated in a special Album folder e.g. /iPhoto Library/Albums/My album name/DSCF0001.jpg - and will have the same name as the original photo. If you ever edit a photo, an original version is also stored so that you have the option to revert to it e.g. /iPhoto Library/2005/09/12/Originals/DSCF0001.jpg

[dennett]

Thank you so much! Following your detailed instructions did the trick!

[schalliol]

Sorry.