Help Me Recover All My Daughter's Baby Videos

[ohsnaphappy]

Update: I removed the HDD from the Time Capsule and put it into an old iOmega enclosure. When I turned on the iOmega enclosure here's what I saw:

1) One HDD named APconfig - 21.9mb used, 1.05gb free
2) One HDD named APswap - 21.9mb used, 1.05gb free
3) One HDD named TC Weddings - this is where I manually stored client photos. 1.61tb used, 387.74gb free.

The Data folder, with potential Time Machine backups is not visible. It's possible I stopped using the Time Capsule for my Time Machine backups however, and I forgot... explaining why there is no Data folder.

I don't think there's much hope here.

Original Post:

For over a decade, I stored all of my family photos and videos in iPhoto. Every picture/video of my daughter as a baby - covering her entire life from the day she was born.

The earliest videos are all .avi (I think I used a plugin to watch them on my Mac in the old days.)

A few years back, I got a new Mac. When I imported the iPhoto library into the Photos App NONE of the avi photos imported. Meaning all my daughter's childhood videos are gone.

When I clicked Get Info on my old iPhoto library there are approximately 1000 additional files. For example, Photos says 19000 files imported BUT my old iPhoto library says it has 20000 files.

So how do I get those avi files out of my old iPhoto library?

Here's my theory - the avi files aren't actually in the iPhoto library. I'm guessing the extra 1000 files are PLACEHOLDER files that point to the avi files that at one time existed on my old Mac. That's why I can't seem to get find the avi files on my own.

Help!

If you want to dig deeper and really help me - I have my old Mac backed up to a Time Capsule, yay!! BUT the Time Capsule is dead. It won't turn on anymore. So assuming I can't get the avi files out of my old iPhoto library, then I'm guessing my next best option = removing hard drive from dead Time Capsule and trying to recover them from that hard drive. If that's what I need to do how do I begin that process?

Sorry it's so complicated!!

 

[Fishrrman]

When you start a new thread like this, with no link to an earlier thread, it's next-to-impossible to understand what you're talking about.

You have just learned why "Apple's backup software" can let one down at a bad time.
If you had been using either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to backup to a regular (non-networked) hard drive, I'll reckon you wouldn't be here asking for help right now.

What I would do next:
- You'll need another hard drive, formatted to HFS+. DO NOT use APFS.
- Once you have that ready, use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the "TC Weddings" folder from the problem drive to the cloned HFS+ backup.
- With a copy, now you can poke around and see "what's there" (if indeed ANYTHING is there).
NOTE: CarbonCopyCloner is FREE to download and use for 30 days.
You have no excuse for not trying the advice I give above.

OK, with the files copied and working from the HFS drive...
What KIND of files/folder/library are we looking at?
Is it an iPhoto library?
Is it a Photos library?
Is it something else?

Hmmm... if years ago, when you imported into the Photos library and none of the avi files got imported, WHERE DID THE OLD ONES GO?
Did you somehow delete them?

From your post:
"When I clicked Get Info on my old iPhoto library there are approximately 1000 additional files. For example, Photos says 19000 files imported BUT my old iPhoto library says it has 20000 files."

Important questions:
You still have the old iPhoto library? (this is IMPORTANT)
Do you still have iPhoto?
Do you have a copy of it that will run?
Will it open the old library?
YOU CAN STILL RUN iPHOTO, but you need version 9.6.1 (NO OTHER VERSION will run with modern Mac OS's).
It may be possible to use iPhoto to open the old library, and access the data.

Do the steps above, and tell us if you still have the old iPhoto library available.

I can tell you how to get iPhoto 9.6.1, but that requires a private message.

The above is my opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.