Conforming and Indexing Errors, Media Pending, Audio won't play in timeline

Question

I'm working on a desktop PC which is running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and Adobe Premiere Pro (version CS5.5). It's currently utilizing a second gen. 3.4Ghz i7 2600 processor, 16GB of 1600Mhz RAM, 64GB solid-state drive and a ASUS P8Z68-V Intel Z68 Motherboard with onboard audio (Realtek ALC892 chipset) and onboard video. My problem is this:
The conforming and indexing of all of my imported media never seems to finish regardless of how many times I reopen the project file and wait for it. On the lower right-hand portion of the screen, next to the conforming/indexing progress bar, is a little red "X". When clicked, it pops up with a list of errors that read: "An unexpected error occurred while performing a conform action on the following file...". As a result, my audio channels have no waveform and during playback there are no audible tones or levels. On some video clips there's just text that reads "Media Pending". This only appears to happen with project files that I saved on external hard drives, and I suspect it has something to do with the Media Cache Files folder and how Premiere Pro locates these conform/index files. I've also encountered this problem in CS3 and CS4.
I have a few questions:
1) How do I avoid error messages in regards to indexing and conforming
2) How do you know when indexing/conforming has completed itself? (there doesn't seem to be a progress log or a list of commands/executions)
3) Indexing and conforming appears to be an automatic process, but is there a way to do it manually?
4) What's the best way to setup your media cache files when you click EDIT > PREFERENCES > MEDIA?
5) If I have approximately 1 hour of footage, what's an average wait time for conforming/indexing? What about 5 hours of footage? 10?
6) Adobe recommends not editing until the conforming and indexing has completed itself-- how important is this?
7) Sometimes it appears as though the conforming and indexing has finished, but then I still have problems with playback. Do I have to reopen the project for it to continue with the conforming/indexing progress? I've already determined that the video file I'm working with is intact and free of any corruption.
I'm fine with having to wait for a project to conform and index, but it never seems to complete itself! Any help regarding this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Harm filled in pretty much all the salient details, but I'll do another pass here.
1) How do I avoid error messages in regards to indexing and conforming
Two parts here.  One, conforming only happens for certain media files, ie the ones where performance is critical and we can't depend on extracting the audio fast enough for realtime playback.  That's basically anything in an .mpeg wrapper, or AVCHD material.  So if you edit XDCAM HD/EX or P2, or RED, or even AVIs or QT, those formats don't require audio conforming.
If you're stuck editing AVCHD or MPEG2, then it needs to conform.  But, that being said, you shouldn't be getting errors in the first place. I think it's related to your external drives.  More below...
2) How do you know when indexing/conforming has completed itself? (there doesn't seem to be a progress log or a list of commands/executions)
Nope, you have a progress status bar indicating which file it's working on.  If there's an error, it shows up in the events panel.
3) Indexing and conforming appears to be an automatic process, but is there a way to do it manually?
No.
4) What's the best way to setup your media cache files when you click EDIT > PREFERENCES > MEDIA?
While some people like having the check box for having the conform files beside the media, I hate it.  Yes, it means that if you move the project to a different system & reopen, it means that you potentially can avoid recreating CFA files, but I find the drive littering not worth it.  I much prefer having setting the Media prefs to point to a specific media drive.  Usually a raid, if available.  Definitely not an external drive that you disconnect & walk away with.  If you don't have a permanent raid on your system, then preferably a dedicated internal drive for media (think along the lines as your Photoshop 'scratch disk').  Failing that, leave it on your C: drive, although with a 64 Gig SSD, you probably don't have much room for transient temporaries.
5) If I have approximately 1 hour of footage, what's an average wait time for conforming/indexing? What about 5 hours of footage? 10?
Like Harm said.  Totally dependant on the media container & the speed of your drive i/o.  The conforming is iterating through the entire file & pulling audio data, so it's not CPU intensive, it's all i/o.
6) Adobe recommends not editing until the conforming and indexing has completed itself-- how important is this?
If you're trying to play/scrub while conforming, it's going to be pokey.  Esp. if you're trying to access the file that's actively being conformd.  As I just said, we're hitting the files for all the audio.  The i/o is being saturated already, so unless you have a stellar raid, you don't have much headroom.
7) Sometimes it appears as though the conforming and indexing has finished, but then I still have problems with playback. Do I have to reopen the project for it to continue with the conforming/indexing progress? I've already determined that the video file I'm working with is intact and free of any corruption.
You should be good to go.  Sounds like there's something else at play here.
Okay, back to what I think is wrong:  you don't mention what kind of external drives you're using.  You're making a bad assumption that blowing away conformed files & doing a reconform is buggy - I doubt it, as that's the same process that happened when you initially brought in the files.  I've blown away my media cache folder multiple times and have never seen failures on reconform.  So it's got to be one of two things:  either a read error from the source when attempting to pull the audio, or a write error to the destination.  Now I don't know where you currently are pointing the media cache directory, or what your source drive is, so I can only speculate.
My suggestion is to do some elimination.   Copy one of the files that failed on you to your C drive, & target your media cache directory also to C:.  Pick a new project, import your copied file, confirm that it conforms correctly & behaves.   Then, try to use the same clip from your external drive, keeping the media cache to C:.  If that's still good, then try targeting another (local/internal) drive as your media cache target; close/restart, then import the clip from C:, and then import the clip from your external drive.  This troubleshooting should give us something.
PS, if you're trying to edit from external USB drives, good luck.  I find it a major PITA that I avoid as much as possible.  Firewire isn't much better.  I know some people do it successfully, but I think it's a road fraught with peril.  These devices are generally not designed for heavy duty I/O and a flaky connection or drive is nothing but pain.
Cheers