FCP, STP, Media Manager happy together?

Question

Background:
With FCP 5.1.2 I am having some issues with media managing a 25 minute SD sequence from a large project. My goal is to move the sequence and clips to an external drive from the main editing system.
The problem is that when I media manage(MM) the sequence (copying the clips, creating a new project, including non-active multiclip angles), the collection of media and clips copied by the MM does not include every clip used in the sequence. It gets most of them, but misses about 20 out of 450 clips used.
Other odd facts of note:
The resulting MM'ed project contains both sequences and clips that do not appear to be used in the original sequence. So, while some clips are missing, FCP is making it up by throwing in a few random ones. Thanks?
When reconnecting the media, I get a modal dialog (from QT I am guessing) saying: "Effect975120BA-9850-4E#2043.aif cannot be found. Without this file, the movie cannot play properly. Cancel? Search?" This looks like a reference movie problem, but to my knowledge we have never used QT reference movies.
There are also references to .stap files, which I cannot find anywhere. Each .stap file seems to be missing a "render.mov" file.
Question 1:
We've used STP on some of the audio files in the sequence. I am guessing we either used it incorrectly, or that round-tripping in STP conflicts somehow with using the media manager? Are there any known issues here?
Question 2:
In trying to track down why some of the clips do not get their media copied, I exported the MMed project file to XML v3 and looked at the missing clip. Here is the weird file section from the clip:
<file id="QTMRead">
<pathurl>file://localhost/Applications/Final%20Cut%20Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/</pathurl>
<rate>
<timebase>24</timebase>
<ntsc>TRUE</ntsc>
</rate>
<duration>3808</duration>
<media>
<audio>
<samplecharacteristics>
<samplerate>48000</samplerate>
<depth>32</depth>
</samplecharacteristics>
<channelcount>1</channelcount>
</audio>
</media>
</file>
Uh, what is my clip looking for a plug in?
Any and all help appreciated, thanks in advance.

Answer 1

1. I am sure she has more than one batch of files named "untitledxx" in her numerous capture scratch folders. If I do media manager will it keep them separated and properly linked to it's intended clip, or will Media manager throw them all together, thus confusing FCP?
I noticed an option on media manager that asks if you want to base media file names by their exsisting file names, or clip names.
She does a decent job correctly labeling her clips in the bin, just not the captured source files, by basing the media on clip will it solve my issue mentioned above? <
Unknown, sorry, this is why you want to run a test, probably more than one. The source media files will not have exactly the same names--oh, you have separate capture folders. Okay, this WILL be a problem.
<div class="jive-quote">2. Deleting unused media...I should uncheck this right? otherwise i may loose clips I need or want to use? Is this why the green bar labeled modified is smaller than the original bar? What does including affiliate clips outside selection mean? < </div>
This is one of the things that tells me MM was designed by or purchased from someone who has not prior knowledge of FCP. This actually means the copy will forget and refuse to copy over any unused media. But it scare the bejeezus out of everyone. "DELETE?" Ohmygawd, NO!
3. And my best bet for right now is to copy the media, rather than move, decompress, or use existing? that way if anything messes up, i can still use her drives. < </div>
Affirmative. Still, make some tests so you are confident with the MM results. You're on the right track, luck.
bogiesan