More import troubles for a Lightroom amateur..

Question

Hello one and all.
I've been searching for a solution to my problem for a few days now and as of yet no luck. I'm quite inexperienced with all the ins and outs and dialogs of Lightroom; I'm a very basic user, import photos, organise into sets etc and collections and then just edit.
As of the other evening, after inserting my SD card into my Mac's built in reader, Lightroom would open the import catalog and show all of the images on the card, greying out those that were previously imported and those that are due to be copied.
My lightroom is set to copy the photos over from my SD card to my pictures folder on my Macbook but for some reason, whenever I try to import any photos, it won't let me. It will bring up the import bar (top left) along with the import in progress screen. Then Lightroom decides to 'lock-up' (i think that's the term?) and won't import any photos. It doesn't freeze exactly, rather it just refuses to import them to the pictures folder. I have tried deleting my preferences and such to no avail. I also just reinstalled it and still the same problem.
BUT when I tell Lightroom to send my pictures to another folder, it works fine? I'm at a loss as this is kind of inconvinent.
I'm running Mac OS X V10.6.8 with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7, 8GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 RAM so the computer shouldn't even break a sweat doing it's task
I use a Canon 550D that I havent updated in a while. I just updated my EFI firmware on the Mac in vain it would help. As far as I can tell it appears to be a probelm with location? I have googled and tried a nuber of things and I'm 100% sure it's the tiniest thing but I would really appreciate some help as to what's going on. It's just one of those things that will end up confusing me until I sort it.
Any help will be muchly appreciated,
Many thanks to all in advance (even if you call me a internet n00b who doesn't know how to google)
Ash.
oh and for the record I've been trying to google the solution for a couple of days now

Answer 1

What happens when you try to copy images directly from the SD card reader to a new subfolder in 'Pictures' on your HDD using the OS X Finder and NOT LR?
I know I will be flamed for what I am about to say, but so be it! I suggest never copying images from any camera or card reader directly into LR using the 'Import' module. There have been many reports (too many to count!) of users losing images, corrupting images, or simply not copying a single file, even though everything appeared to be working just fine. Yes it should work without a hitch since it is a simple operation, but it doesn't in too many cases!
I have never used LR's 'Import' module to download image files direct from a camera or with a card reader. I also have NEVER lost or corrupted a single image file, or have an image file that didn't get transferred to the exact folder location I selected. Here is my simple procedure, which takes very little additional time:
1) Copy the image files direct from camera or a card reader to one (1) destination folder on your hard drive using Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. I use the simplest folder naming hierarchy: Camera Model (Canon 5D MKII) > Shoot Date (YYYMMDD). If the images on the card were shot over multiple days, I use the last day of the shoot. REASON: LR provides plenty of organizational tools for cataloging and adding metatdata to your image files.
Keep Image Storage Simple = KISS
2) Open Lightroom's Import module and 'Add' the new files.
3) Confirm the picture count for the new image files imported into Lightroom. This will be easy if you used one (1) folder with the shoot date, located under your 'Camera Model' main folder.
4) Sort images by 'Capture Time' and check the first image file (oldest) for full functionality by verifying 1:1 preview has proper imaging in LR’s ‘Develop’ module.
5) Repeat #4 above for the very last file (newest).
This isn't an exhaustive test, but a good "common sense" check that the image files transferred properly to your hard drive and are fully functional in LR (i.e. not corrupted).