Aperture has two ways of handling images... Mananaged or Referenced. Leave iPhoto out for a moment. I do not use it or know anything about it.
In an "Aperture Mananged" environment Aperture will "suck" the images into the "Aperture Library" and you will not have access to the through the finder. In the "Referenced" environment, Aperture only keeps track of your changes in the Aperture Library and leaves the files (images) whereever you store them.
I switched to this method at the beginning of this year, due to out growing the storage capacity on 9 drives and having to have 9 different Aperture Libraries.
Anyway, so what I am suggesting is that, If you have the images located in a folder try to import them but leave them "in their current location". This is an option in the import screen. It is a much quicker process.
If they are not in a folder yet, that you can access through the finder, can you move them or "relocate them from the old system to a folder, and then try to import, leaving them in "thier current location"
(Here is a link to the place in the manual that explains the difference: http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/usermanual/index.html#chapter=5%26sec tion=16%26tasks=true).
Aperture is a very quirky application, I have had my share of nightmares with it. I am just finally getting the upgrade from Aperture 2 to 3 completed on a new machine that I bought in the beginning of may.
I will be away from the computer for most of the day today, but if I can help at all I will try.
Good Luck!!!
Jack
