Thanks for the input all! WILL give these suggestions a go! For wabe...it's definitely not a defrag issue as I have my machine set-up to defrag every nite! Soon as I've had some dinner, I'll build a test/demo scene as Nish has suggested. AND Spit, I assume you're referring to actually saving the files with 'names' as opposed to 'numbers' rather than just renaming 'em, 'cuz renaming (which I've already tried) doesn't help?!? AGAIN, thanks all!! ==steve