Photo Library on Hard Drive won't open in Photos

My hard drive keeps quitting when I try to open my Photos Library which are saved to an external hard drive.

I want to move the library to iCloud because my hard drive had to be repaired (needle stuck over disc - Samsung M3 1TB). I can see my library but every time I try to open or open/repair the photos application quits. How do I get my photos to the cloud and save the day?