Lost library in iPhoto '08

We recently purchased a MacBook Pro and have been using iPhoto to organize all of our family photos. All was going great until this evening.
At first, iPhoto quit unexpectedly. Then, after we relaunched, the entire Mac froze. We powered down and restarted.
When we next launched iPhoto, none of our events, albums, or calendar projects appeared. We browsed the forums and used some of the suggestions including:
1.) launch holding the Option key down (there appears to be a library of 10+ gig of pics there which we believe are our photos. We've backed the library up but cannot open it.)
2.) launch holding down the Option+Apple key and selecting all of the rebuild options. No luck. iPhoto is still empty - it looks like it did the first time we launched it on the new mac.
3.) we checked the disk utilities for permissions, verified, repaired. Tried relaunching iPhoto but nothing else.
We're going to try to reboot the mac but at this point, we're lost. We spent many hours importing, sorting, creating calendars, etc. and are devastated at the thought we may have lost this work.
Any suggestions on how to recover the files and work we've done would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
- Jeff

Jeff
It seems like your database has been corrupted in that hard crash. This will happen if iPhoto is interrupted when writing the the db file.
Try these in order - from best option on down...
1. Do you have an up-to-date back up? If so, try copy the library6.iphoto file from the back up to the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) allowing it to overwrite the damaged file.
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 back.
3. If neither of these work then you'll need to create and populate a new library.
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same Events and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, modified versions, books, calendars etc.
In the iPhoto Preferences -> Events Uncheck the box at 'Imported Items from the Finder'
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click -> Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual Event Folders to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

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    message edited by:  cs

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