As a new member I am trying to determine how to save files to my hard drive. can we do that? I would like to keep some of the files I have in my saved/shared folders to mt documents on the hard drive, or is that not allowed

Well where else do you think they go ... of course they're saved to your HDD. But ONLY after they've reached 100% downlded. Go to LW's Library window & click on the Saved Files folder. That's where they'll go. Press Explore & the folder will open up for you. If you want to share other folders also, then go to LW's Library window & then to menu File>Add Folder to Share.

what does it mean that the files could not move to library?? i have tons of free space

HippieHottie that was a problem that generally happened with LW 4.2.x which had some bugs. It means that your downld prefs are not reconising the save locaiton. SO ... try deleting your LW Preferences folder whilst LW is closed; instructions here: Fixes for Limewire

i have version 4.8 & can't find a preferences folder anywhere... grrr

Click on the link above & see bottom of that page.