Aperture fails to import 10,000 pics - hangs, instead, and takes 200% CPU

Question

Help!
I am an IT professional and a professional photographer. But I have now spent a MONTH!! trying in vain to import my photo library into Aperture on my iMac.
I try to import 10,000 images (the import mode that leaves originals where they are) from my 1 TB firewire drive (bought at Apple store). Result same every time: it imports for hours or days (taking 200% CPU - who writes this malware?) , then hangs up completely.
Apple is no help.. no phone number to be found anywhere. I'll even pay.. this is my work, and I cannot do it.
I have followed maybe 50 threads here and on Google about similar issues and I have done everything that everyone suggests. No difference.
My latest import again halted with the app locking up. Here is what I did:
I bought a 1 TB RAID0 drive at the Apple Store. I copied all my photo shoot directories ove rthere. I emptied Aperture (deleted all projects, restarted). I then started re-importing the images from the new drive (I chose the way that leaves the originals where they are).
So far it has been chugging along all night creating thumbnails. The CPU is 200% used (of which 190% is Aperture). Aperture is completely unresponsive. In fact - Aperture is so unresponsive I am sure it has hung up. Yes, it has - no activity but 200% CPU. Ok, I force quit and now I need to repeat the process again?
This does not seem like good software - certainly not well behaved. I mean, how difficult can it be to import 10,000 images - that is what this software is for. Right? So make the app “nice” 10, already, so I can do other things meanwhile. Or give me a progress bar, with an ETA.
I am willing to learn - not being difficult. I have Googled others’ issues. I have followed instructions. I have tried support (no help there). I ask here.
But should it really take month to import my images? I am very close to throwing this crapware out and getting Lightroom instead.
Ideas welcome. Or an Apple phone number, which Appleseems to be very adept at hiding at all costs. I'll pay for the **** service!!!!!
Michael

Answer 1

Welcome to the forum.
The phone number will be on the AppleCare document that came in your Aperture box, along with an AppleCare ID for your copy of Aperture.
Also, typing 'applecare telephone number' into Google will give you http://www.apple.com/support/contact/phone_contacts.html as the very first result...
I've never imported more than a thousand images at once but have not seen the kind of problems you are describing. What happens if you try importing smaller chunks at a time?
Progress bar - open up the Activity window (Window>Show Activity) to view the progress of all background tasks such as importing & exporting, generation of thumbnails and Previews. You'll also see a 'working' indicator at the bottom of the Viewer or Browser panes, clicking on this will normally bring up the Activity window. Finally, the Project you are importing into will show a pie chart progress indicator instead of it's usual 'filing box' icon.
Ian
P.S. '+(taking 200% CPU - who writes this malware?)+' - if you're an IT pro then you're already aware that apps that are working flat-out and are multi-core aware are going to grab as much of the CPU(s) as possible. 200% and not doing anything is a problem - 200% in itself simply means the app is making full use of the resources available, and RAW decoding is an extremely CPU-intensive task.