Why would Excel crash when SAVING AS file into another folder

Question

Issue: An Excel workbook with links to another workbook, is saved into another (destination) folder that does not contain the other workbook, causes Excel to crash (Excel closes completely with no error messages and no processes are running from Excel).

Attempted Fixes That Did NOT Work:

1. Run Excel in Safe Mode.
2. Less nested folders/directories.
3. Shorter file name (one character).
4. Saving the referenced workbook into the destination folder as a copy and paste method through windows explorer. Then attempting to Save As the crashing file down one nested folder into the same folder as the referenced workbook.
5. Administrator running Excel.

Work Arounds That DID Work On Their Own:

1. Breaking the links in the workbooks.
2. Opening both workbooks, saving the referenced work book into the another folder (destination folder down one level) FIRST. Then saving the workbook that WAS crashing into the same folder as the referenced workbook.
3. Saving the crashing workbook into another folder (destination folder up one level).
4. Save (quick save) the file in its current location. Close the file, move the file using windows explorer to the nested folder. Clearly, this works.

Very strange to see this happen under these circumstances. It appears to be related to links to another workbook but why would it crash when doing a "save as" into one folder level down? Obviously, linking to other workbooks is important and these work arounds will not do.