iPhoto Importing Nightmare

[gdougles]

I switched from PC to Mac a few months ago and am satisfied for the most part, but I am having problems with iPhoto that are driving me crazy. I am trying to import jpeg and quicktime files from DVD and a few hundred of them are giving me the following error:

UNREADABLE FILE
The following files could not be imported (they may be an unrecognized file type or the files may not contain valid data).

Someone gave me the advice of copying the files to the desktop and running batchmod on them, but when I try to copy them to an empty folder on the desktop, I inexplicably receive this error:

"You cannot copy '102_0311.jpg' to the destination because its name is the same as the name of an item on the destination, except for the case of some characters."

The folder is empty, so why I get this message is beyond me. I have tried this multiple times to multiple destination folders always with the same result.

Just to add, I cannot view the files in preview from the DVDs, but I can see them just fine on my PC. Also, they are the same file type and taken by the same camera as over 6000 photos/movies that transfer just fine.

I am at a loss here. Any thoughts?

THANKS!

[zatrat]

Hmmmmm... cant say I've ever had that kind of problem. (I've never owned a pc.)
Is there any way to acces those file directly from the pc? With your mac? Using a ethernet cable and transfering the files that way?
You might also try to e-mail some of the files.

[gdougles]

I have not tried either of those options.

My PC is currently not internet accessible because I just have wireless in my apt and it's an old PC with no wireless card. Also, emailing hundreds of pictures (and figuring out which of the 7000 photos/vids failed to transfer) would be an enormously time-consuming process.

What steps do I need to take to perform a direct transfer from the PC with an ethernet or USB cable? I have never tried that before...

If anyone else has any other ideas they would be very appreciated!

[zatrat]

If you have a ethernet cable, all you have to do is just connect the mac and the pc and via the network acces your pc - find the files (photos/vids) and transfer them.
I think that can work.

[gdougles]

Thanks for the suggestion, I will give that a try.

Just to throw some more information out there that might help someone figure this out --

I was looking through some of the picture folders and it looks as though the files that failed to import may actually have been transfered to the iphoto library folders, but when I click on them I get this error telling me that the file may be corrupt or an unrecognized file type. In some cases it also looks like there are several copies of the same picture or movie that couldn't be imported...

Can something be done to help iPhoto recognize them as valid file types?