Finding photos on an External hardrive

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Finding photos on an External hardrive

I hope this is a simple fix.

My older MacBook Pro (2011) - no longer works. The tech guys at work suggested I take it to a computer place if I want it to work again. Expensive I am sure.

They asked if I backed-up my files, etc. I said, of course. Yes - adata hd650 external HDD

Now I am using my newer MacBook Pro to open the external harddrive to see the back-ups.

I have a large amount of photos on it and other documents that I need and would like to transfer to my current MacBook.

I can see the documents fine, but I am having trouble finding the photos.

I think I need a step by step way to locate the back-up photos....

Suggestions?

I hope have given enough info. for help or at least a start to this question.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 3, 2020 12:40 PM

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Answer 1

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Old Toad

Level 10

210,189 points

Jul 3, 2020 4:36 PM in response to thirstyislander

If you backed up the old MB with Time Machine you'll need to enter Time Machine, go to the pictures folder and find the latest backup of the library. Select it an restore it to your new MB. If you can't access what you need try holding down the Option key and selecting the Browse Other Backup Disks… option:

Then select the same disk. This screenshot schematic shows how it's done.

This is assuming that you had the library in your Home/Pictures folder which is the normal default location.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,189 points

Jul 3, 2020 2:27 PM in response to thirstyislander

Please read the following user tip and restate your question/problem in detail: Writing an Effective Apple Support Communities Question - Apple Community

What system and iPhoto versions are you running?

How were the backups made? With Time Machine or some other backup method?

Where were the photos located on your old MB when they were backed up?

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Answer 3

Jul 3, 2020 3:57 PM in response to Old Toad

Newer MacBook Pro OS Catalina 10.15.5 / Photos 5.0 (151.19.150)

Older MB - not entirely sure, since it is unable to boot up. It is a 2010 MacBook Pro. I have the SSD out.

Back-ups were made with an external hard drive and time machine on the older MB.

Photos were located in the older MB's hard drive (HD drive?). I would have thought they were backed up every time I did a back-up / time machine with external hard drive.

The "back up" advice I received with the older MB, was to get an external hd. This would then allow Time Machine to work and do its back-up when I plug in the external hd. Was I mislead?

Thank-you for taking the time here. I briefly read over the link you suggested :)

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Answer 4

Jul 4, 2020 10:08 AM in response to Old Toad

I did the hold down the Option key and selected the Browse Other Backup Disks option. This worked.

Then clicked on the disk. When I get to this screen, I tried to find my Pictures folder, but could not see it on the sidebar (like on your favorites area). I did find the Time Machine, so I clicked that and saw the I could get to my latest back-up - - Jan 19 2019.

From here I searched around and really only saw lots of Documents folders. No Photos folder. Of course I panicked. But I dug a bit deeper and found Mac SSD. Here there are drop downs with: Applications, Library, System, Users and VM. I could not find a Pictures / Photos folder in any of them, except when I went to Users. Under Users there were 2 drop downs - discgolfdean and Shared. Under discgolfdean, I found Pictures. I found the Photos Library (107.7 GB), so I thought this was good! That must be it.

So I did Control - Click and pressed the Restore button.

At this point, I got confused. There was a window that asked me if I wanted to open Photos Library, I pressed OK. Then it said that did not work (dismissed or something). I got out of this window and pressed "cancel". At no point have I seen any photos or pictures, just icons.

I went back into Time Machine (without holding the Option key) and saw that the Photos Library was updated to today July 4 2020. I then clicked on it and it asked me if I wanted to update my Photos Library. I said OK and it is updating, but at 2 % complete for the past 20 minutes, while I write this post.

That's where I am at so far. :)

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Answer 5

Jul 4, 2020 12:50 PM in response to thirstyislander

It worked! All my photos are now on the newer MB.

THANK-YOU so much for your help!

Cheers!

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Finding photos on an External hardrive

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