Copying photos

[Thunderbird 1]

Good morning all

I'm sure this has been done to death here but can someone tell me how to copy the photos on my iMac to an external drive. I have looked this up on various forums and YouTube but the main issues I have are many of the YouTube tutorials seem to use the terms 'copy' and 'move' in the same demo, and several of the replies on the forums ask whether you want to copy either your 'photos' or your'photo library'.

I want to copy (not move) all my photos as a back up in case my Mac blows up, is stolen or whatever to an external hard drive and keep the originals on the Mac. I also don't understand the difference between 'photos' and 'photo library'.

Thanks

Scott

 

[Samuelsan2001]

Right

Good morning all

I'm sure this has been done to death here but can someone tell me how to copy the photos on my iMac to an external drive. I have looked this up on various forums and YouTube but the main issues I have are many of the YouTube tutorials seem to use the terms 'copy' and 'move' in the same demo, and several of the replies on the forums ask whether you want to copy either your 'photos' or your'photo library'.

I want to copy (not move) all my photos as a back up in case my Mac blows up, is stolen or whatever to an external hard drive and keep the originals on the Mac. I also don't understand the difference between 'photos' and 'photo library'.

Thanks

Scott

You could just highlight all the photos and copy and paste them (right click).

If you go into teh finder and look for iPhoto library you will have a folder with all your iphoto information and pictures in. You can right click and copy this to an external or just drag and drop. You will then have a library which you can specify as the target for iphoto if needed.

Of course if you time machine backup your whole machine you will also have this file and everything else on your mac...

 

[seroposi]

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2645121?start=0&tstart=0

 

[Fishrrman]

Thunderbird:

How large is the external drive?
Are you currently using it for a backup?

Suggestion:
Download either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.

Either one can create a fully-bootable backup of your ENTIRE drive, photos and everything else.

ALL of it will be "ready to go" if you have a "moment of extreme need".
Just connect the backup and you can access one file, many files, or even boot from it if you wish.

CCC is FREE to download and FREE to use for 30 days.
SD will create a "full clone" of your drive forever, without registering (you do have to register if you want to do incremental backups).

Keep the backup "away from" the computer at home (protection against theft).
Some people keep a -second backup- in a different building, as protection against fire, or other disasters.

I keep a flashdrive with important files in my car, since I don't have an office or locker somewhere else. I encrypted the flashdrive, so even if the car was stolen, all the thieves will get is "a flashdrive" -- and NOT the files.

 

[UniDoubleU]

Where are the photos stored now? If it's in "Pictures" folder in your Home folder than you can just copy the whole thing. If they're in iPhoto and the likes then you'll need to export them.