Spinning beachball never ending in project panel

[pepboy]

It is hairpulling time! Any advice appreciated.
Today, any time I touch the project panel, I get the spinning beach ball which never goes away (both on existing and new projects). A new event loads properly.
I actually copied all of my existing events/projects onto an external HD, then reinstalled FCP 10.0.1. Had also tried trashing preferences (using Preference Mangager). Until today, I have been working with FCP 10.0.1 without any issues. I really haven't changed anything in my setup.
I have 192 of 250 GB free on one drive, 1.9TB of 2TB free on 2nd drive.

Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac11,3
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 4
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 8 MB
Memory: 16 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s

 

[TheReverend]

Hard to diagnose as written. Is it possible for you to dismount the drive with projects on it and then boot FCPX? I've had long beachball before, but it resolved everytime eventually. But that was on a 4layer-CCed 35 min documentary. If you have small projects, this shouldn't happen.

Lion? Snow Leopard?
Previous install of FCS/FCP7?

 

[pepboy]

The footage I am importing as an event is 13GB (about an hour long). I wasn't having any difficulties with this size of file a few days ago.
I copied my original footage file onto my computer, then completely disconnected the external drive which contained all my events/projects.
My operating system is Snow Leopard.
FCPX is first version of Final Cut I've ever installed on this machine. A week ago I updated to FCP 10.0.1.
I am attaching a screen shot showing how far I've been able to go.
I can load event, and it shows up (in background task window it loads and renders). Cannot scrub and see in project window. If I attempt to do so get beachball.
Can create blank project, but then if I even click in the project window, get beachball.
It's like I arrived at my machine today to find it inhabited by goblins!

 

[pepboy]

OK, I am bailing on FCP X! Going to give Premier Pro a try. 9/10 of my time is spent trying to understand bugs.
Opened my project on a second computer today, no problems here, but went to export and no pop-up export menus are coming up.
This program is so unbelievably buggy at every turn. I'll just have to wait till further down the road when Apple gets this more worked out.
Truly Beta at this point.

 

[dustylense]

OK, I am bailing on FCP X! Going to give Premier Pro a try. 9/10 of my time is spent trying to understand bugs.
Opened my project on a second computer today, no problems here, but went to export and no pop-up export menus are coming up.
This program is so unbelievably buggy at every turn. I'll just have to wait till further down the road when Apple gets this more worked out.
Truly Beta at this point.

I've cut maybe a dozen projects in FCPX going between my laptop and desktop and have not had any of your issues. One of them being about 20 minutes long with tons of green screen work. Maybe a couple hiccups here and there, but I get those in any NLE.

 

[bbalser]

Don't give up so easily. PPro has it's headaches, too.

What format/source was the footage you imported and exactly how did you import it?
Did you set up to copy it and/or Optimize it?
Did you set up to create proxies?

Sounds like you asked FCP X to do something intense in the background and it's not finished. But we'd need more information as I've asked.

 

[pepboy]

BenB, thanks for your input/questions. I've appreciated your postings on this forum. I would like nothing more than to stick with FCPX.
The first 3 weeks I used were great, with exception of optical flow not working properly on a second machine.

Something, and I'm not sure what, must have changed on my computer to change FCPX behavior recenty.
I have done the following:
Trashed preferences
Unistalled FCP 10.0.1 and re-downloaded 10.0.1 from app store
Uninstalled that and went back to FCP 10 (which I had kept a copy of on external drive).
Uninstalled FCP 10
Uninstalled Compressor, Motion, and NeatVideo plug in for FCP/Motion
Re-built desktop
Re-captured anew my original footage from camera tape drive in case my footage was corrupted (I had been working with a file I captured several years ago).

Nothing has resolved problem, and I've been stuck dead in the water.
Searched high and low on internet for folks with similar problems.

To import, I have tried variations of copying, Optimizing, Proxy, both Optimizing and Proxy, and no optimizing and proxy.
Nothing makes any difference.

I need to move on from this and start producing with other software, have been stuck for almost a week now troubleshooting.
Hopefully when I come back to FCPX in the future, won't be dealing with so many bugs, or people will have encountered similar problem and know of a solution.
Thanks