I have a Dell laptop running Vista with Core2duo and lacie external HD. I tried to save a project to the lacie and got a message saying I had to get permission from the "Administrator" and so I ended up saving it to the internal disk. How do I go about getting permission from the administrator?

Unless you're using someone else's computer, YOU should be the administrator. Go to Control panel/User Accounts, and see whether you're listed as Administrator - or, if you're logging in as a Guest you probably don't have admin privilege (these are ways of doing the task in XP, not sure what it's like in Vista) Steve