Got iPhoto 11 for wifey, but now i am scared to install - is it really poor?

[silroc]

I am a MAC noob and know anough to be dangerous and dumb....
Any advice for me before I install ilife 11 (with iPhoto 11 in it)?

So far i have backed up all her pics (not her library) to an external NTFS HD (i had to use some software to make that happen BTW but thats another headache)

How would i go about backing up her 09 iPhoto library which i assume includes albums she has made, printed photo book projects she made, edited pictures etc.... ?


and onto the real question - is iPhoto 11 (iLife 11) not worth the purchase price? can i put the 50 bucks to better APPLE use?

thanks

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Connect an external HD to your Mac, run Time Machine?

Also, when you install iPhoto, just be sure to run Software Update right after that before opening iPhoto.

 

[silroc]

Connect an external HD to your Mac, run Time Machine?

Also, when you install iPhoto, just be sure to run Software Update right after that before opening iPhoto.

thamk you on that -

FWIW

I connected my external HD and wanted to run time machine, but my external HD already has a backup of windows stuff from my machine, and time machine said it needed to wipe that drive to use it (something to that effect)

so i did some googling (see what i mean about being dangerous?) and manually copied all her pics to that drive (using software called paragon i think).

I guess that brings me off to another tangent to ask if time machine will work with paragon to write to an NTFS drive that already has "stuff" on it. I hate to buy another external HD just for her mac - office is too cluttered

 

[Matthew Yohe]

If you can partition that drive, you can make one part HFS+ and the other NTFS. Then it would just "erase" the HFS+ partition and backup to that.

 

[silroc]

If you can partition that drive, you can make one part HFS+ and the other NTFS. Then it would just "erase" the HFS+ partition and backup to that.

thanks

but i believe i needed to partition it before i wrote to it. so now i think i need to wipe it to repartition it... but good idea if i want to move all the files off the HD, format it, then move them back.... just dont know where i can put them in the meantime

 

[davegregory]

Before you do anything else, and before your wife murders you. Back up those pictures to no fewer than TWO hard drives or some other media. Do not have one copy of those files before you start deleting and partitioning things. I do not want to check this thread again and see that you lost all your photos and read in the local paper that you were shot dead. Go and by another external drive from Best Buy or wherever and use it for backing up pictures. Make sure all your pictures are on the drive and that they are viewable in finder before you go and start formatting drives. When you've got them backed up to the new drive, eject it in finder and put it on the shelf, make sure it's not plugged in to the Mac at all. Then and only then start partitioning drives for time machine and your windows backups.

To backup her iPhoto '09 library and all contents you just find the file called iPhoto Library (default) it's usually in your home folder in the subfolder "Pictures". Just click and drag it to your backup drive. Verify that it copied properly and you're good to go on your iPhoto '11 upgrade. iPhoto '11 will automatically upgrade her library for her. But the backup is definitely something you want to have if something goes awry in the process.

 

[PatrickCocoa]

Wifey

1. Go spend $100 and get a 1 TB drive. Plug it into your Mac and use it exclusively for Time Machine. It will revolutionize your life - you will not need to spend time thinking about backups, and anytime you want something (even if you've deleted it), it's there and Time Machine can easily find it.

2. That said, make some separate backups (on a different hard drive than above) of important things. Like pictures.

3. Stop calling her "wifey". She hates it.

4. Is iPhoto 11 worth $50? Yes. Are there better things you could spend $50 on? You'll have to decide that.

5. Don't worry about iPhoto's folder and file system for saving pictures. Just use iPhoto's defaults.

6. Have fun with iPhoto 11 - if you decide to spend a few hours and geotag your existing pictures you can have some fun looking at pictures from a location basis rather than chronologically. Same for Faces.

 

[skillz1318]

There were some issues with iPhoto when it was first released, but there have been updates to fix them.

1. Install iPhoto
2. DO NOT RUN iPhoto yet...run apple software updates first!
3. Once all updates have been applied (iPhoto specific) you can then launch iPhoto

Have fun!

 

[DaveF]

I got iLife 11 for Christmas and found it a nice upgrade. My wife had me check several features that she uses and it has them all, and made a few features better that she might now start using.

Regarding updates: iPhoto won't run until the updates are installed. I clicked the icon after the DVD install and it told me it to run software updates first. That got a big update, and following that was a second smaller update. iPhoto and th rest of iLife ran fine after that.