Illustrator is destroying my artwork!

Question

okay,
so without me actually moving Illustrator (13.0), (or anything else for that matter) I am getting a message saying that sometime before I opened my file, illustrator was "moved" from its original location.
Now I am shown four options in regards to pictures in the document that I had already placed before. The links are apparently broken, caused by this move.
It says
'repair, ignore, cancel', and one other option.
Another strange problem is that the document actually has a photograph from a different document inside of it, which I never even placed there!
Illustrator then asks me to find the files so it can repair something... It lists their name, but not their location (easy enough).
I was not able to find the files after two tries, then it seemed to self-save its status (because it stopped asking)
So now I have to start all over again, placing, cropping, and alligning the pictures back into the document. ;(
This moving of Illustrator happens all the time without me even touching anything so i was wondering if there is a way to keep illustrator from moving? Use a boat anchor?
I just designed half my portfolio in Illustrator, so I'm not about to lose it!

Answer 1

As far as this discussion is concerned, I think there is only one kind of folder. You can call it a folder or a virtual folder or a directory, but really it's just a way to organize the location of files. Files can be physically located anywhere on a hard drive, disk, CD, server, etc., but it would be difficult to locate them without some sort of artificial but logical hierarchical structure.
Say I want my Illustrator file to include a link to a photo of me sharing a bottle of whiskey with Bob Dylan at a party in August, 2004, that I know is on my external hard drive. I open the hard drive and see a list of 20 or thirty folders, each with the name of a different category of possible files - Unpaid Bills, Letters to the Editor, Lawsuits, Stamp Collection, etc. My collection of party photographs is in the "Images" folder. Within this folder I find folders labeled Bullfights, Crime Scenes, Drunk Clients, and so on. I open the Great Parties folder and find a series of folders labeled by years. In the 2004 folder I find another series of folders, labeled by party and month. I open the "08 Rock Star Party" folder and find my photo, and link-place it in my Illustrator file.
If I look in Illustrator's Document Info panel I can see a few items of information about the image, the most important of which is where it's located: External Drive/ Images/ Great Parties/ 2004/ 08 Rock Star Party. That's how Illustrator knows where it is, and its how I know where it is.
One of my friends might decide that, because the folder "Images" also contains a lot of artwork for professional wrestling posters and and lumberjack tournaments, it should be called "Artwork", and he changes its name.
Well, now not only can I no longer find my photo of Bob and me, but neither can Illustrator. Because the path down the tree hierarchy from the hard drive on which Illustrator is installed down to the 08 Rock Star Party has been broken. Changing the name of or moving to a new location (like into another folder) ANY of the folders in this path will do the same thing.
I have to track down the photo's new location myself and relink it in Illustrator. If I remember the title of the photo file I can do a search for it. Illustrator remembers its title, it just hasn't been told its new address. Click the Replace button in the dialog that appears, and a new Replace dialog appears, with "Please Locate "Gary and Bob Dylan Partying.jpg": at the top.