iPhoto & Backup to CD help needed

[J McRae]

Hello.
I do not own, nor have I ever seen an eMac machine! I am a Windows PC user through and through. Oddly enough, I'm trying to help a friend who's encountered a problem with her Mac. To complicate matters, she lives in Dallas and I live near Houston, so our communication is via email.

She was able to tell me that she owns an eMac running Finder Version 10 4.7 and according to the MacHD, she has 9 items and 119.2 GB available.

Her problem is with iPhoto. She has had her machine for two years and is an inveterate photobug. She's used to connecting her camera and downloading her photos automatically. Until last week when she received an error concerning the cache and rebuilding...I'm not sure what. Her grandson sent her a copy of the photos on a CD (Windows) and her son, in New York, talked her through saving them to her computer. However, she still can't download from her camera.

She said she deleted a lot of photos because she thought she was running out of room on her hard drive but to no avail. I told her I'd see what I could find out and see if I could walk her through the process. I also told her it would be a good idea to back up her files, documents, photos, and email at the very least - but she doesn't know how. Until that point, I didn't realize just how different the Mac was from Windows.

So - I need to know how her machine backs up and how to clear the "cache" so she can try the camera again. I don't want her to do any clearing or deleting until she has saved her important files.

Is this too optimistic? I have to tell her one step at a time because I don't think she's ever investigated anything outside email and iPhoto!? Notwithstanding the fact that I've never laid eyes on a Mac!!

Thank you for taking the time to consider my problems!

 

[VirtualTracy]

Hello.
I do not own, nor have I ever seen an eMac machine!

Hello J McRae, welcome to macosx & welcome to the eMac

Here is a room full of eMacs The eMac almost was my very first *modern* Mac ... FWIW, the e that prefixes Mac denotes that the model was aimed at the educational market. There's a bit of trivia for you then ...

I just loved the design and very nearly bought one but held off and ended up buying an iMac. AFAIK, the i stands for internet as the selling point was supposed to be how easy it was to get online.

I am a Windows PC user through and through. Oddly enough, I'm trying to help a friend who's encountered a problem with her Mac. To complicate matters, she lives in Dallas and I live near Houston, so our communication is via email.

Good on you for helping out with your friends issue! Aside from the email contact, you can always link here to this thread as well, it all helps!

Her problem is with iPhoto. She has had her machine for two years and is an inveterate photobug. She's used to connecting her camera and downloading her photos automatically. Until last week when she received an error concerning the cache and rebuilding...I'm not sure what. Her grandson sent her a copy of the photos on a CD (Windows) and her son, in New York, talked her through saving them to her computer. However, she still can't download from her camera.

If she can't use iPhoto to download her photos to her eMac, there is an alternative called Image Capture which your friend should find in her Applications Folder:

MacintoshHD ~> Applications ~> Image Capture​

There is a keyboard shortcut to launch the Applications folder and that is Command A, or ⌘ A, or  A ( ... the Command, ⌘ and  are all names for the same key, much like the windows key on your PC).

When Image Capture is launched and there is no camera attached your friend will see this:

When Image Capture detects the camera is connected this window appears:

There are different options available in this window, with the choice to select exactly which photos you want or don't want to download. I suggest that your friend opens up Image Capture's Preferences ( Image Capture ~> Preferences or the keyboard shortcut ⌘,).

Until iPhoto is fixed it's probably best to set Image Capture's Prefs so that whenever a camera is attached Image Capture launches instead of iPhoto, which probably is how the Prefs are currently set. This will bypass iPhoto as the predominant image manager for now and your friend can temporarily organise the storage of any photos that she needs to offload from her camera now.

She said she deleted a lot of photos because she thought she was running out of room on her hard drive but to no avail. I told her I'd see what I could find out and see if I could walk her through the process. I also told her it would be a good idea to back up her files, documents, photos, and email at the very least - but she doesn't know how. Until that point, I didn't realize just how different the Mac was from Windows.

Good advice there! Backing up should be something that is performed regularly rather than after a disaster strikes, but hindsight can be a powerful teacher as I have found out in the past when it comes to losing my important files.

Here is a link regarding backing up the iPhoto Library:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iPhoto/7.0/en/6301.html

iPhoto also has an Export feature found under its File menu where you can export the entire library to a folder on your Desktop for backup over a Network or to Disc.

Regarding two OS platforms, there are various methods of backing up and MacOS X/Windows OS aren't that far removed from each other in a few techniques like burning to disc, either CD/DVD/Dual Layer DVD, connecting an Ext Hard Drive and copying data over to the external drive, uploading files to an online location that allows large amounts of data storage, either free or at a cost (in some instances though, there may be a privacy concern), copying files onto an iPod that has been "Storage Drive Enabled" and possibly other methods that I can't think of ... I personally use SuperDuper, which more or less creates a bootable image of my Internal Drive on an External Hard Drive. I perform this roughly once per month and any newer files are added to the Ext Drive and any files that are on the Ext that I no longer have on my computers drive are deleted. This is a system that works for me. There are a few 3rd Party solutions available to do this and I believe Mac OS X even has an inbuilt backup feature called rsync, but it's not something I'm really au fait with, nor comfortable in using. Here is a link explaining about this feature:

rsync

So - I need to know how her machine backs up and how to clear the "cache" so she can try the camera again. I don't want her to do any clearing or deleting until she has saved her important files.

Is this too optimistic? I have to tell her one step at a time because I don't think she's ever investigated anything outside email and iPhoto!? Notwithstanding the fact that I've never laid eyes on a Mac!!

Thank you for taking the time to consider my problems!

Here are some maintenance tips for iPhoto:

Hold down the Option and Command keys as you launch iPhoto either from the Dock or the Applications Folder. You should see the following window:

Here is a link regarding the available options in the above window:

http://www.simplehelp.net/2008/06/20/how-to-rebuild-a-corrupt-iphoto-08-database/

I'm not sure about whether or not the problem is at the camera end or the app end so after performing the above maintenance, there is a chance the camera may still not properly download to iPhoto. You may need further information as to exactly what errors show, if any and whether the camera is actually recognised by iPhoto at all.

Hope this helps and your friend is able to continue on using her eMac in the way that she is used to

 

[J McRae]

I am astonished!

Where can I post a "Thank You"?

You have given me so much in your reply that I'm sure I will be able to help her. My primary mission was to save her photos for her and not destroy her computer during my efforts.

Thank you VirtualTracy. It's members like you who give members like me HOPE!

 

[VirtualTracy]

I am astonished!

Where can I post a "Thank You"?

You have given me so much in your reply that I'm sure I will be able to help her. My primary mission was to save her photos for her and not destroy her computer during my efforts.

Thank you VirtualTracy. It's members like you who give members like me HOPE!

It's members like you that motivate me ...

 

[VirtualTracy]

Oh I nearly forgot .... here's a link you might find interesting:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/

 

[J McRae]

I'm on it!
Thanks, ever-so!