OS X Mountain Lion :: Preview Opens Hundreds Of Files As Unsaved Images

Computer details:

13" Macbook Pro - mid-2012 (9.2)

2.9 GHZ

750 GB Hard Drive

8 GB RAM

OS: 10.8.2 

I tried to open a single image in Preview (Version 6.0.1 (765.4)). Instead, it opened just over 500 images (out of 2300 on the hard drive) as "Untitled 1" "Untitled 2" etc. Over three hundred of those were grouped in a single window (that is, one of them was visible large, with thumbnails of all in the "drawer"). Why it opened the files as "Untitled", nor, in fact, why it opened them at all. I had only clicked on one to open it. I quit Preview, but upon reopening, all the "Untitled" images were back. The same thing happened when opening Preview after restart. The only way I could get rid of them was to close their windows one at a time. Of course, when closing something that's unsaved, the computer asks whether to save it or not, but I cannot click Command-D (as in previous systems), I have to click the Don't Save button each and every time. This takes ages with so many windows open. 

Well, since I had no choice, I did that for the couple hundred images that had opened in their own window(s). Then I tried to close the images in the single window. I would do Command-W, then click Don't Save. The dialog closed, but the image didn't go away. Then a new Save dialog box would open with a different "untitled" number specified, and I would do it again. And again. And again. The images, however, did not disappear. Then I saw that the names (Untitled 101, Untitled 204, etc) of some of the images I had previously attempted to close were coming back again. They had not actually closed. I could not get rid of that window with three hundred images open in it. If I quit Preview, then reopened it, ALL of the 500 plus images opened again, even the ones I had successfully closed. The application is now useless until I find a fix.