How I fixed my iPhoto '11

I have Bootcamp installed and was on Windows 7 before I decided to go to MAC OSX and open up iPhoto. While in Windows 7 though, I got the dreaded "blue screen of death", and for sure, it restarted. I decided to go straight to OSX and do some iPhoto stuff for my Project 365 pet project.

However when I tried to open iPhoto from the dock, the icon would just bounce for about a minute or so, and then it just stops. No iPhoto window will open -- no nothing. Nada! Right clicking on the icon will tell you what really happened -- the "Application is not responding".

As for the fix, this is what I did:
1. Opened System Preferences
2. Clicked on Spotlight
3. Clicked on Privacy
4. Added my "BOOTCAMP" partition. This would prevent Spotlight from searching this location.
source: Apple - Support

Good thing right? Well, yes, I got my iPhoto running again. I got me thinking though, how is it that in order to fix iPhoto, I need to change some settings in Spotlight? Doesn't make any direct sense, right?

With the given series of events that happened, from the "Blue Screen of Death" in Windows 7 -> Restart to OSX -> Opening iPhoto, it seems that the root cause was that the bootcamp partition was not gracefully released. Sure enough, there were also applications that were still running before the BSOD and those weren't gracefully shutdown as well. And with these conditions, it also seemed that Spotlight had trouble going through the BOOTCAMP partition.

Here are other things you can do if your iPhoto goes gaga: Apple - Support - iPhoto