IPhoto keeps pointing at dismatled external drive

Hi there,
Before I had my iMac my home network was build around a US Robotics Router (USRR) to which an external Freecom Network Drive (FND) was attached, on which about 15Gb of photos were stored.
Then I bought my iMac, connected it to the router and imported those photos. Nice..all in iPhoto. By the way...I had not changed default settings so I guess the photos were not referenced by actually loaded into iPhoto.
After some months I replaced the USRR with the Time Capsule for router and storage purpose (faster network + 2T storage). I also turned on Time Machine functionality.
*Problem 1*
- when linking the Freedom Network Drive to the Time Capsule via ethernet, I could read the photos but not editing them (error -36). Connecting it to the USB port made no change.
My plan to resolve this is to reformat this drive - Question: what is the best format to use if on my home network I have 2 macs and 3 window PCs who also should be able to access this drive.
*Problem 2*
- the real problem I have is that since I have dismantled the USRR and replaced it with the TC, and when accessing photos that use to be on that FND, I get in iPhoto the message that "the server 196.168.x.x can not be found". Ik I click OK then I get the question to point to the location of the photo in Finder. Not sure I want to do that for 5000 photos???
*Problem 3*
- Now the real strange thing occurs: I copied those photos to the TC and an external Western Digital My Book 1T Drive (connected via firewire). If I then delete those events in iPhoto, and import them from either the TC or the MyBook Drive----------->>>I still get the same "the server 196.168.x.x can not be found" message.
Whoever can help me with this, I will send a Belgian beer !!
Thanks and sorry for the long story

This sometimes occurs if you’re importing a file into iPhoto and there’s already a file there with the same name. Digital cameras can produce many, many files with the same name over their lifetime, so it’s not uncommon to have several files called IMG_00543.JPG, for instance. Now you want to import one also called this.
What happens is that iPhoto compares the two files to check for duplicates. However, if iPhoto cannot find the file already in the database for comparison, then you get this message. It suggests that your database is damaged because iPhoto has lost track of this (or these) similarly named files.
A simple test is to rename the file you are importing - just add a character - IMG_00543a.JPG for instance. If this then imports with no issue then you might consider rebuilding your library:
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 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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