OK, I fixed the external album folder. I had commented it out : //$conf[external...etc because I made a change to it which didn't work, then couldn't remember the default setting and everything I tried returned an error, so by commenting the line, it removed all mention of it and thus all problems. It is back to default now though (Null). Everything is still the same.
How do you mean reset mod_rewrite? In the admin panel? Or in the .htaccess file?
I unticked modrewrite in the admin panel, saved, then reticked it...No Change.
Found a new symptom too: ON the admin Overview page, if I click 'Refresh Database', it adds something like 50 new albums. Apparently I have 9500+ albums...... (so clearly something else is adding albums too, I haven't clicked that button that many time.)
.htAccess
My root directory .htaccess is short and sweet:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^tdmskp.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.tdmskp.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.tdmskp.com.au [R=301,L]
The zenphoto directory htaccess is completely unchanged except for the line posted previously, which I copied pasted from the document. I don't see how I can attach documents to these posts, but if you want me to copy paste the entire document in here I will do it as a whole post.