All images disappeared

Yes I am working on a local hard drive, and when you ask 'importing slides into a new file?" Do you mean, the Import from a storyline template option? If so the answer is no, this is not a template file. I can remove the graphic (because what you get is a box outline without a graphic in it - but is shows on the timeline as if a graphic is there), so... you can remove it - try to reimport it and it only imports a box outline - not the graphic - storyline 'thinks the graphic is there' you see it in the timeline, and can add animation to it - but there is nothing there. The options are to rebuild the project and then you can import, or to copy and paste the graphic from the graphics file into the project and then the graphic is there. That being said, at times this newly cut and pasted graphic will also disappear. That is why this is so frustrating, as it happens without consistency, and not on every slide, without a common denominator on the slides that it does occur on. I have wondered if there was some corruption in the program itself!