IPhoto file too full to accept new photos

the system is a mac book pro 2009 running 10.6.5 and iphoto '09. iPhoto has run into a file limit. there are about 35,000 items in the iPhoto file. the internal hd of the mac book pro is also full. -- 7 GB available.
i photo file is on a 250 GB external (OWC) with a 240GB partition for iPhoto and 10GB partition for misc. a check of "get info" shows the iPhoto 240GB partition full.
a complication, prior to getting a space available reading, 400 new photos (about 1.5 to 3 MB each) were downloaded and attempted to be placed in the already full iPhoto '09 file. now, when iPhoto is opened, the spinning busy ball is the only indicator - no other iPhoto actions are available. the machine was left on overnight, and iPhoto still shows the spinning busy ball.
the 400 photos are sill saved on a SD card and could be trashed if necessary to get out of this fix. but i do not know how to do that.
a new OWC 1TB external HD is ordered and on the way, but it is not clear how to proceed to save the existing iPhoto library and then transfer it to the new 1 TB hard drive.
i did some looking online and found Pogue's iPhoto'09 missing manual, chapter 13, file management. but it does not seem to cover what i need to do here. i am aware that iPhoto is very fussy about how its files are addressed and one can easily destroy them by an untutored action. here is the link to pogue's instructions (scroll to p. 309)
http://books.google.com/books?id=LG43X_8DtgC&pg=PA309&lpg=PA309&dq=iphotofile+too+full+to+accept+newphotos&source=bl&ots=0dRCENUcL6&sig=5E-8SE5WjV5r3D2w4MMwmNmc9vk&hl=en&ei=1p8aTe7 AIML38AajhIzXDQ&sa=X&oi=bookresult&ct=result&resnum=3&sqi=2&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false
so in summary- how can i accomplish the following:
- stop the spinning ball associated with trying to load 4,000 new photos in the already full iPhoto file?
- set up a new iphoto file on a generous partition of the new 1 TB ext hard drive?
- move the iPhoto items from the old 250 Gb hard drive safely to the new 1 Tb?
- establish the new 1TB hard drive as the only iphoto file for this system?
i have probably left out something important as well.
thanks for your help - j

First off: the problem isn't that iPhoto is full. iPhoto is good for 250,000 images. The problem is the volume (or partition) that the Library is on is full. Attempting to add the extra photos means that iPhoto was unable to write to the database file, which has been damaged.
So, you need to move the Library to a bigger disk. You can do this by drag and drop.
Then Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

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