exporting iphoto library to external hard drive.

what is the format of the drive and how is it connected to your Mac?

LN

We need to know how the drive is formatted, as LarryHN asked. What is the file system? Is it MacOS Extended (Journaled) for different file system?

Error -36 is very typical for trying to copy between drives with different file systems.

Then you have probably a file in the library that has an illegal filename or a corrupted file in the library.

Sometimes it will help to repair the library before trying to copy it.

I'm not sure, if your version of iPhoto supported to repair the permissions and the database: See: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201769

There are two possible ways to transfer the library to a different drive: Use cloning software like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper to copy the library, or copy it piecewise - open the package and copy the files inside one-by-one, so you can identify any corrupted files and skip them when copying.

To copy in small steps, so that you can see, which file is causing the I/O error:

• Create a new folder on your destination drive. Call it "Photos Library Copy".
• Ctrl-click (or right-click) your current Photos Library and use the command "Show Package Contents". This will open a folder, showing you the files and folders inside your Photos Library.
• Copy these folders one-by-one to to the new folder on your destination drive. If one of these folders is giving an error -36, check how far the copying proceeded. The files, that have been copied are o.k. The file or folder, that should have been copied next will be the unreadable file. Probably the problem is caused by one of the files in "Originals". In that case look into the originals folder and copy as much as you can, while leaving out any file that will not copy.

When you are done, rename the copy of your Photos Library to "Photos Library Copy.photolibrary" (it should be the same filename extension as the extension of your original library) and open the library in iPhoto, Does that succeed?

I am not even able to drag an empty folder from my desktop onto the EHD without getting the (error code -36) pop up.

Does that mean there is something wrong with my hard drive?

That is a possibility. Make sure, you have a current backup of your Mac and your external drive before you proceed with anything else. Are you running Time Machine?

Check both drives with Disk Utility. Disk Utility is in the Utilities folder in your Applications folder.