Crash after import from camera

Question

My iMovie HD 6.03 crashes always right after import of a complete tape (60 Minutes) from my camera.
I've done this 2 times before with 2 other tapes and completed it without problems. Now with the 3. tape I am stuck because of those crashes. I imported it 3 times and it happens always the same. I first thought it is because the external disk has to wake up when I get back to my desk some time after the import completed, but it happens the same when I import to internal disk and work with it immediately after the import finished.
The tape stops, all the clips (approx. 250) appear in the clip list. I "save" the document. Then as soon as I click into the clips list the spinnball appears for about 10 seconds and the program crashes.
Of course when I open iMovie again all the 250 imported clips are listed in the trash list, but dragging them into iMovie results in all the clips mixed up, I would need an hour to bring them into original order, therefore the trashlist is useless.
Also "saving" it before clicking anything that results in crash is useless, the imported files are not saved on place in the cliplist but always appear in the trash-list.
What else can I try?
Thomas

Answer 1

Well, I did the third tape now with some breaks during importing. Each time I dragged all clips into timeline and saved the project. This worked, but each break will result in a short interruption that is not as the original tape was. I also would prefer to let the importing work during times I am not sitting at the computer, so I am still looking how to solve that problem.
Maybe it just is that iMovie can not handle more then 250 clips in the clip-list?
I know that the timeline handles more then that, because I was importing 2x60 minutes tapes before, with well over 300 clips in timeline.