My mac has been programmed not to take iphoto by previous owner how do I change that

This is likely a file problem. Either the finder cannot find the app any longer or it is corrupted, or the permissions have been changed. The last is most likely. Try running the Disk Utility program and under the First Aid tab select Repair Disk Permissions and run the program.
This should clean up a permissions type of problem. If it does not, you may have to delete the iPhoto program and reinstall it. Be careful to save your pictures first to another area on you hard drive, so they do not get deleted.

Plug in your iPhone to your computer, if it's a PC you will need to use the Photo Import Wizard and if it's a Mac you will need to open iPhoto.

The pros do it this way....they use a card reader to download to a folder they create on the desktop. From there, it's easy to send the pics to iPhoto.

In iPhoto Preferences under the Accounts tab, make sure whichever mail account you use is the first one in the list.
I believe this existed in the version of iPhone in Mac OS 10.4

I take it that you have forgotten the original name of the hard drive if not just rename the disk. Failing that go into itunes go to preferences and then click on the Advanced tab and you can then change where you media files are.

For iphoto look at this article on the apple website

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229

Hope this helps

I dont work with Mac's but it sounds like the new Imac isnt syncing with the iphoto, if you have a syncing program , please run it and then try again, sound like a mismatch.

Good news and bad news . . .You will probably have to reinstall the OS - that is, unless you have backed up your files on Time Machine or some other back up program. Then all you have to do is ask the back up program to reinstall the missing files. 
But if you haven't backed up, you will lose your Mail accounts and email, but not your photos, as far as I know. But at least you can rebuild your accounts. 
You will find your iPhoto library in the Applications folder. You can find your photos If you have a .Mac (Mobile Me) account, however, you will find your .Mac mail online. 
Here is more help for iPhoto: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1262302
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=151957
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=257869http://forum.maccast.com/index.php?showtopic=4134

I hope something in there helps.  Best wishes, Shari Dyer

Your camera should have come with the cable that is needed to upload your images into your Mac. But you will need to upload your images into a photo program (like iPhoto) to store and manipulate them. Once the camera is plugged in and detected, iPhoto automatically imports them into the program. It will store both still and video images and has some pretty good built in editing features. Hope this helps!

Don't use Camedia, use iPhoto. Copy the pics from the camera to the Mac and import to iPhoto. Much easier and no delay or lost photo.

Even though Sony Mavica digital cameras are listed as compatible with iPhoto, the camera has to be set to Picture-Transfer-Protocol (PTP) before you can download. In addition, you will need to open Image Capture in the Applications folder. As soon as these steps are taken, the camera is recognized by iPhoto and all photos downloaded into Image Capture.