Copying of iPhoto library going very slowly

Question

Hello, all,
Yesterday I purchased a brand new 1TB firewire 800 external drive. It's correctly formatted for my Mac. I had wanted to put my iPhoto library on this drive, OR use it as a backup location for the library. Either way, I needed to copy it over from my iMac's internal drive.
I tried twice to copy the library (using the Finder), which lists itself as 89GB. Each time the Finder progress bar indicated the copy would take two to three days. That sounded like way too short a time over Firewire 800. To test things out, I did a different backup copy of my *iTunes* library, which is also over 80GB. That library lives on a different external drive, using Firewire 400. THAT copy took less than an hour, and it had to go downstream from one external and then upstream to the new external. A second copy of other files from that external drive also went swimmingly: 22GB in about 12 minutes.
Does anyone have any insight into what might be happening? Is there something unusual about iPhoto libraries that makes them copy more slowly than other kinds of files?
Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

I found a fast soution 45 Gb Library copied in ~30 min. over USB 2.0
I did a semi-manual copy, by opening the iPhoto Library - "Show package contents" (in right click menu)  then copying the contents to a new iPhoto libaray "Package"
Instead of copying all at once copy the small files/folders in one batch, wati to complete, then copy the larger files folders.  You can copy the package contents one folder at a time or a few at a time. I found that copying the Library files in one batch, then copying the Masters, Previews, & Thumbnails in a second batch seemed to work well without choking up. 
Here's the steps
Connect your hard drive or Mac in Target disk mode
navigate to the folder containing the iPhoto Library you wish to copy
'Right click' Show Package Contents
You'll see apx 19 files - select all but exclude 3 folders: Masters, Previews, & Thumbnails you'll come back for theses later
Copy these files to an empty folder on your destination drive/Mac (Later you'll use iPhoto to make a new libary "Package" then you'll put these files inside it) The copy should take  a few minutes, high volume + tiny files
When the first copy is finished, go back and copy the remaining 3 folders Masters, Previews, & Thumbnails.  This is the opposite as previous step, lower volume + larger files.  Copy speeds should be normal ie 30 min. for 45 Gb over USB 2.0.
Once all these files and folders are copied you need to put them into an empty iPhoto Library container.  An easy way to do this is
Launch iPhoto holding the Option key
Choose 'New Library' (choose an apprpriate name)
Quit iPhoto
in Finder go to the new Library you just created (User/Pictures/) - be sure its the one you just made
Right Click (Control + Click) the iPhoto Libraray
Choose - Show Package Contents (now you're looking at the contents that makup an iPhoto library)
Select all these files and folders and delete them to the trash Open the folder that has your freshly copied files and put them in this empty iPhoto Library package.
Close finder windows (disconnect your hard drive or Mac)
Launch iPhoto (you can hold the Option Key while launching iPhoto to choose the correct Library if you have more than one). 
Viola. You should have a functional copy from your old Mac/External hard drive.
REMEMBER!
The easiest way to mess up your iPhoto Library is to move things around inside the "Package contents" of your iPhoto Library.  Its hidden in there for a reason, so don't go mucking about under the hood.  Best practice is to touch nothing inside the "Show Package Contetns" of your iPhoto library.    As described above, we're merely just speeding up a file transfer and copying files so they mirror their source in a new destination.  Good luck.