In the past I have not been able to save to a network drive. Would an external hard drive act enough like my computers hard drive that I could save files there and use them for the movies?
Yes, you can save to external drives.
Something you need to know about Movie Edit Pro is how the program handles projects.
The project is the .MVP file, and it is not the video or media component itself. This is just a file that has data written to where the parts of the project are located. So, let’s make an example here.
Project name: Test.MVP
C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\video01.avi
C:\Users\Owner\Desktop\Vacation\video02.avi
C:\Users\Owner\Music\backroundsong.wav
C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\image01.jpg
C:\Users\Owner\Pictures\image02.jpg
These are just examples, of what the .MVP file actually contains, there is more data associated... I am not sure how it looks written out. This is just to demonstrate how it may look, the point is that it tells the project the location of where the “media components” are located that are used in the project.
Now, why is it important to know this?
If you were to save your project, to an external drive, and delete any of the media component parts of the projects or simply move then from where they were originally found, then that itself will cause the project to not open. If you move or delete the project media parts, the locations of the material are not changed in the .MVP file
So... if you are using an external drive, then I suggest you put all your material on that drive before you build the project, then take the parts from that drive to actually build the project.
OR
If you build the project and you are done, but you want to save the project and all its components to a NEW location, then under the drop down menu "Help" there is an area for "Backup copy"
"Backup project and media into folder..."
This will save the project, and all the media components (audio, image, video) to the folder you choose... even an external drive.