How to read iphoto library on WD passport across two Mac Book Pros an 08 and a 11?

Question

Hello,
  Please help!
I have a MBP '08 (mine) & a MBP '11 (not mine). I am copying all photos, video & itunes files to two external hard drives. Both computers are full and need to be emptied and the 2011 will be leaving my posession soon. My issue right now is with iphoto.  The 2011 laptop is running iphoto 2011. The 2008 laptop is running iphoto 2008. I am not in a position to purchase a 2011 iphoto upgrage for my '08 computer.
SO with all that being said,  I need to have all files from both computers boot from either external drive onto my 2008 Mac Book Pro right now (or any mac for that matter would be nice).  The first external hard drive is a WD My Passport 500GB, the second is a Mercury Elite-AL Pro 1T. So far I copied the iphoto library from both computers onto the WD Passport. Went in through 'finder', 'pictures', 'iphoto library', and simply dragged that whole file onto the external. Did this same process with both computers in the exact same way. With the 2011 macbook copy there were no issues other than when I went to see if the library would boot on the 2008 macbook it said the version on the '08 computer was not able to open because it was an older version than the 2011. First bummer. Then when I finnished copying library from the '08 macbook to WD I tried to open it on the 2011 macbook and it said the library has to be updated to the '11 iphoto version and then it would not respond in any later version.  Second bummer. That won't work for me as I will be operating from my '08 laptop only. The final glitch I encountered on my '08 laptop was when I finnished my copying and unplugged the WD, I went to open the iphoto app from my dock as usual on the '08 computer and it said it couldn't find my library. I did not delete anything! SO I went into 'finder, 'home', 'pictures', 'iphoto library' and opened it from there and all my pictures booted up in the app that way, but that's lame. I want it the way it was and don't see why it should've changed.
That's it! Pardon the long description. I don't know how to be more concise. I simply need all files from both computers to boot up from either external hard drive onto my '08 laptop using '08 iphoto if that's possible and I'd like my original iphoto library on my '08 to load up from the app in the dock like normal. How do I accomplish all this??
Thank you or your time.

Answer 1

You can not open an iPhoto '11 library using any older version of iPhoto
Wne you opened the iPhoto '08 library using iPhoto '11 you were told that this would upgrade the library and it would no longer be usable by previous versions and you clicked OK to do that
And the iPhoto library must always be on a volume formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) - what format is the WD MyPassport?
YOu can purchase iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ -  and rebuild the iPhoto '11 library(s) using iPhoto '08 to downgrade it - see the IPLM FAQs for their instructions
LN