IPhoto library has become unreadable (again!)....

I have a very large iPhoto library containing everything I ever photographed since 2000
It worked perfectly until I was away in February when it crashed (became unreadable) while I was editing new photos - I panicked thinking I had lost everything and then read as much as my small brain could understand about how to fix it and only lost a couple of photos in the repair.
Since then, iPhoto has worked perfectly again although I tend not to shut it or the MacBook down as often.
Last night, editing new photos, it became unreadable again.
I now have the old old library stored on a small hard drive, the new old library on another, time machine backed up on another and a big new LaCie 3tb external hard drive which only has the photo library on it (bar the very recent photos which are still on my camera card)
I am not technical enough to understand why my library keeps having a problem or what to do about fixing it properly and I am struggling to know how to manage it all
What I really want to do (I think) is store my iPhoto library permanently on the external drive as it has considerably more capacity than my MacBook but also be able to access the more recent photos just on the MacBook - is this possible?
How should I fix my library and sort this mess out?
Step by step info and assume I know less than a 3 year old about it please - also I have aperture on my MacBook could this be part of the problem?
Thanks in advance - v frustrated at my lack of knowledge!!
Ps I have read the forums but I don't understand most of it! I need an idiots guide...
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)
I have 44.29GB of space left on my hard drive (242.something maximum)
iPhoto version is 9.4.3

28k isn't a big library these days. My main library is coming up on twice that and we see reports on here from people with libraries in excess of 100k. The capacity of an iPhoto 11 library is 1,000,000, earlier versions are good for 250,000.
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 Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, 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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