How long to back up an 84G iPhoto Library to external hard drive?

I have an 84G iPhoto Library that I am trying to back up. I have a external drive connected through ethernet port directly to my iMac. I did have it connected to my router, but the file transfer was taking tooooo long. It's still says it will take about 5 days. Is this normal?
I know Time Machine is really the way to go and plan on setting that up, but I'm just trying to get my iPhoto Libraries backed up first because they are most important to me.

Then I would abort whatever you are doing. Connect the drive to a USB port on the computer, then reformat the drive. If you've never formatted the drive before, then it's probably formatted for a PC, not a Mac.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button.  When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
If you are preparing an external or a non-startup drive, then open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area.  If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
After completing the above you should now try your iPhoto Library backup. Use Carbon Copy Cloner 3.5.4 for the backup. It's reliable and safe.
If your hard drive is for a backup, then instead of just your iPhoto Library you should make a clone of your entire drive if the backup drive is large enough. This will provide you with a bootable backup.

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