Trouble AMA linking and importing original .mov files

Hello,

  I had some media go offline because the render files on an external drive were accidentally erased.  Luckily, I have the external drive with the orginal H.264 QT files and the project.  I tried to AMA link to these files but they only appeared blank in the preview window.  I also tried to link to media and transcode them but I keep getting the spinning beach ball.  I also tried to import the files directly into a bin, but that failed too (spinning beach ball).  I know I've been able to import these small .mov files in the past.  Am I missing something here?  (I'm on MC 8.4.1)

Thanks,

Anthony