I have my auto save on for every two minutes and if no changes have been made since it last saved the catalog then the save dialogue is greyed out. Don't know if this may be why you couldn't save but I was concerend a little till I discovered why I couldn't save the file. I would think you could stil use the save as dialogue though. Just a thought on this. I just looked and the save as is ok so probably not your problem.

Carl

Can't agree with this statement. I have had a laptop for 5 years without any problems other than getting slow for modern software. Sold it and purchased another and hope for another 5 years. Maybe if they are abused they will fail earlier. I always set mine on a flat surface so the cooling vents could function. On occasion I would use it on my lap being careful not to jar it. I doubt they are made for rough abuse like continual jaring or walking with while on. I know lots of others with laptops and no drive problems.

No mater what kind of computer or HD you have there is always the possibility of it failing at any point so still very wise to have a current backup of your important stuff.

I am considering getting an external HD storage to take with me on trips. Never have used anything except my laptop for storing pictures on but may have been lucky.  Not a professional but do value my pictures and enjoy them.

Carl

quote]Expecting third party catalog managers to support proprietary interfaces might be asking too much.
I don't think they should possible read them but they surely could move them along with the camera files they represent since they are well aware of their presence.

To catalogue my raws I feel these are a part of the raw even though sidecar files. If I move the raw then they should be moved with them. Don't see the big problem since other programs do it fine.

I like iView and hope it works for me for quite a while. Purchased it because of its speed, and small disk space. Just hope it stays that way and doesn't get bloated out of proportion. I used Portfolio but it is slow, takes too much disk space, and I don't like all the seperate windows it opens to display a preview.  I will  move the sidecars in explorer if I work on a raw from iView and then close it out and move it to another folder.

DNGs are fine but I haven't converted to that yet. I want to get my files organized before converting so I can see what I have. The least improtant ones I can do in DNG but the best ones I haven't decided on what format to keep them in. Not afraid of DNGs. I had started to convert a year ago but at that time couldn't see their importance so deleted them all and kept the raw files. Once I get the hang of this and see how well it is going to work for me I can convert to DNGs earlier in the process. For now I have what I have and hope for great improvements.

Thanks for all the input and I keep coming back for more.

Carl

I purchaced the Dam book. Then iView and think it is fast and lean. Doesn't take up much hd space for what it does.

I have used it to move some raw files into a wip folder but it doesn't move the sidecar files. I have had to open explorer and then move the sidecar files seperately. Can iView do this or at least let me see them so I can move them from it instead of having to do two operations? Would be a nice feature.

Reason for this is I opend the raw from iView, worked on them, saved them, then went back to Iview to move them into the work in progress folder.

Carl......working on file organization into the future.

I tried fileback pc after reading this post. It worked fine till I had it automatically add some backups. Then when I started it the program window would not show and it kept running all the time. Thought it may be searching my hd so left it on all night. When still running in the morning I re booted, and used remove programs to get rid of it. Then went back and deleted its folder. Not sure what happened but seemed to have some kind of problem with my setup.

Carl