Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 367)

In both views, segments of a spanned clip appear separately when the spanned clip is
missing segments from other volumes. However, when a spanned clip is complete, it is
displayed differently depending on the view you choose.
Incomplete spanned clip
in Hierarchical List view Incomplete spanned clip
in Flat List view
In Flat List view, a complete spanned clip appears as a single item in the Browse area. In
Hierarchical List view, the same spanned clip appears within each volume that contains
one of the spanned clip’s segments.
Hierarchical List view displays
multiple, identical spanned clips. Flat List view displays a single spanned clip.
To avoid confusion, it’s usually best to use Flat List view when transferring spanned clips.
When a spanned clip is incomplete, you can transfer each segment as an individual
QuickTime media file and clip. However, when all segments of a spanned clip are available,
you can transfer all of the spanned clip’s media to a single QuickTime file.
367 Chapter 25 Advanced Topics in Transferring File-Based Media