Hi,
In the project panel, there are several folders. One of them is called footage.
I dragged the files to that folder. They are no longer there.
So I did a test with another video file.
I made a back up of it, dragged it into AE just as before. Closed the project and up came a box asking me to save. I am not sure if I saved it the last time as I was on the phone and not paying attention.
That said, I went back to the original file destination and the file was there along with the back up.
Now this is even more strange because the first time I did this, all the movie files were not i the project footage folder nor are they in the original folder I dragged them from.
Ughh.