212 mb illustrator saves must take awhile, lets start by solving your enexpected quit problem by making illustratrator work not as hard. Give the 2 times a try, let us know how small your file gets afterwards.
1) Link to your images rather than embedding them. When placing make sure the link box is checked, you can easily replace all your image using the link palette if they are already embedded.
2) Do a svae as, and taek off PDF comptaible, unless you are placing your .ai file into tInDesisgn or such no need to ad pdf compatible as it really maeks the file bigger
If you are still having problems, let us know the important stuff about your file like what placed images you have and their file format, or any different fonts like Beowolf 231.