HUGE save times and instability, Illustrator CS

[Lt Major Burns]

i'm currently getting half-hour save times for Illustrator CS. mostly it's just things like A3 layout pages with a token bit of text, and a placed image, or it's just simple nets or whatever, but if it's not saving, and thrashing the harddisk, then it's crashing. saving it causes it to be unstable and crash. this is just about the worse situation to be in!

i have 2gb ram, and the pageins/outs currently stand at 8809432 / 2777233, so ram isn't the issue, but the hard drives are thrashing. is there anyhing i can switch off to help the save?

[Natobasso]

Delete illustrator pref and plist files.

Repair Permissions.

Reinstall Illustrator.

Also, reboot with command + S keys held till you see black screen with white text/type fsck -f/type reboot when complete.

Are you saving your files to a server?

[Lt Major Burns]

ireckon i figured it, it was a layout board with, say 8 .psd images on it, and none were linked, they were all in. so it seemed to be saving all the psd's first then saving the lot. a huge file. n/m i nursed it through with a fixed fsck, a 3x reset PRAM, a clean log-in and nothing running but one illustrator document and finder, and a clean desktop, a clean trash can. clean. clean. clean. it worked, but still, phew! i have to show these tomoro morning!

[Natobasso]

There's no better way to bloat an Illustrator than to place multiple psd's inside of it...

[MacGizmo]

Agreed. While It's not my place to tell someone how to get their work done, Adobe Illustrator is NOT the best app to be doing layout work in. That's what InDesign is for.