Recovering off line files in FCP 7

Hi I have a problem with opening my project files on fcp 7 and hoping someone here can help.

I am new to this software so I fear I have made a school boy error. I uploaded around 11 mini dv tapes from my camera using log and capture (fairly straight forward). I saved some files on as .fcp on the main computer hard drive, and when I ran out of memory, I saved the rest of the files on an external hard drive. In both cases all files were saved as .fcp, though some I saved a .mov files also as I had the time to do so.

Fast forward a few months and I can’t open ANY of my .fcp files except one (the latest one). I can still open the .mov files. I can’t understand what's happened to the .fcp files and I’m worried because I have since deleted the mini dv tapes. Whenever I try to open any of the .fcp filed all I see is ‘media off line’ over a red screen. I try to reconnect but no joy. Strangely as I have said, the latest .fcp does open, but not any previous ones. Any how, when I open FCP, all the .fcp files have x-number of mins/hours listed as being stored when I scroll sideways (where it lists duration time etc) so there must be data on these files. I've tried looking in autosave but no joy. I’ve tried looking on the hard drive of the mac as well as the external, but no joy.

I read somewhere that I shouldn't have re-named the files but could this really be the reason? So as an experiment I tried to re-name a file to a title that I think the computer would have automatically generated. The pattern I spotted was the last file (the one that still opens) was saved under the date, separated by underscores, and then the time. But this didn't work either.

I need help – how can I open these files? I never even started editing, I just uploaded the footage, saved them as .fcp files and logged off. Yes some I saved as .mov files but not the rest.
Any help would be appreciated.
With thanks
Conor

The .fcp files are temporary files you should never be seeing. They're nothing you can do with them. If its not a .mov, it can't be used. I've only seen that issue once, several years ago, no clue how we fixed it. But look in your Capture Scratch folder for the proper ingested files.