Moving projects between external hard drives lose clips

Sorry for the unclear subject line, but I really can't think of a quippy way to say what the problem is.
Short version--I moved project from external hard drive A to external hard drive B. Worked on A. Worked on B. Moved it back to A (still have copy on B). No longer works on A. Clips show up in the timeline, but on screen is white. Transitions, titles, audio don't work. Still works on B.
Ideas?
Long version--I'm using 10.3.9 on my old Powerbook. iMovie 6.0.3. I am using Lacie Porsche 250GB external and a Mercury Elite Pro 500 GB hard drives. When I started, the Lacie, which I was using for my speaking career videos, was NOT formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled). So, while working on another project, I had issues with the infamous Ken Burns bug with pictures.
After consulting with the experts here (thanks Karl), I determined that I must reformat. So, pain and anguish, I moved the various movies off of the Lacie (Drive A) to the Mercury (Drive B). On both, the movies worked fine--all transitions, everything. The Mercury was and is Mac OS Extended (but NOT Journaled).
So, I wipe the Lacie with Disk Utility so it is Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Once finished, I begin the process of moving projects (3 in total) back to the Lacie. Two of the projects are completed works with transitions, audio file, titles and the like. One is just clips in the clip pane, none in the timeline. I moved them all at once.
When I did, I checked them before I would delete them off the Mercury. When I did, both of the completed projects loaded properly--the clips do show in the timeline. But, in the preview window, all I have is a blank white screen. When I play, nothing happens.
I have not erased anything, changed anything, thrown anything away--nothing. And, they still work perfectly on the Mercury (same computer, obviously).
This one really has me stumped. I am really irked that iMovie has apparently become such a messed up program. Worse, this has been out for some time now (I had not used it yet, but I got iLife last year some time). I can't believe there are all these issues all this time later and obviously Apple has done nothing or little to correct these problems. I consider iMovie a real flagship program to model the ease of use and blah blah blah that we all know concerning Apple.
OK, sorry for venting---anyone with any ideas? Did I mess up the drive when I wiped it? Is this merely the program? Something between the fact that the Mercury is NOT Journalled? Any help will, as always, be appreciated.

Thanks David---
The Permissions are the same for both, on both hard drives.
I have not repaired permissions on either.
I did shut down the computer last night and this AM, upon starting again, had the same problem.
I did attempt a few fixes--I moved the clips from the timeline back to the preview pane. I had one clip already there and it would play perfectly. When I did that, with a clip from the timeline and then moved it back, it would show up and play. But, upon hitting the next clip, it would stop playing at the first transition.
Some of the transitions are from a Third Party (Gee). Remember, though, they played perfectly fine from Drive B. I have not attempted, however, to put the Gee effects into iMovie 6. As I said earlier, I haven't used the program on my computer since the Fall. Now, using 6.0.3, I don't see my GeeThree effects anywhere, nor have I tried to put them in. But, from the Drive B (and originally in the drive A), the movie plays fine even though the added clips are not present for me to use in any new project.

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Hi
You must do this the right way.
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Nothing else will do - for VIDEO !
• The Moving of Event's and Project's - Must be done within the iMovie Application
Folders named iMovie Event's and iMovie Project's - can not be moved via Desktop/Finder - as links back to iMovie will break and can not be mended.
My general note on this:
Moving Event's and Project's
Connection - Either connect one Mac in Target mode to the other via FireWire. Or use an external hard disk !
(Target-Mode - Start one Mac e.g. laptop - BUT keep T-key down during full up-start - Now a FW-symbol is jumping around the screen and it will work as an external hard disk when connected to the other Mac)
A. The External Hard Disk - MUST BE - Mac OS Extended (hfs) formatted to work for Video. UNIX/DOS/FAT32/Mac OS Exchange works for most other things but not for Video whatever program is used (iMovie or FinalCut)
B. Should be a FireWire one as USB/USB2 performs badly to me and especially when filling up
C. Do never Move or Alter any folder named
• iMovie Event's - or -
• iMovie Project's
on DeskTop/Finder - as this will result in iMovie losing connections to them and repair can be anything from hard to impossibly.
D. Moving and Copying must be done within iMovie application and Events to Events - and - Project's to Project's.
E. Moving Project's to Event's - Do not work for me - I have to export project as a QuickTime movie then Import this into Events.
Event's window can show two faces
Like this
or like this
from one hard disk Event - You can move it to the other hard disk
You can not (at least not me) move Event to Project or other way around only
Event to Event and Project to Project
Yours Bengt W

Moving projects between external hard drives lose clips

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