I talked at some length with Amazon customer support about memory cards for the Kindle.

I was told, by more than one person, that a 4GB SD (not SDHC ... just SD) card was all they would recommend or support the use of.

So, what do I see today, prominently displayed on the Kindle Home Page?? An "access kit" that includes an 8GB SDHC).

I really do wish Amazon and Amazon customer support would get their stories straight. I cancelled my order for an 8GB HDSC on their say so .... good grief. :smack:

There have been numerous reports that SDHC cards - at least up to 8GB in size - work OK. Whether there's any point in getting one, given the current library system, is a more debatable point; you probably won't want more than a couple of hundreds books at a time on there.

Perhaps best to get a 2GB SD. Very cheap, and will hold more books than you'll ever want.

I am using a 8GB SDHC card (originally used with my laptop). Besides using it for additional ebook storage, I have some Audible.com audiobooks and may add a few mp3's. I could have done just as well with a 2 or 4 GB card but since I already had it...

Oh, I absolutely believe an 8GB card will work .... I read somewhere where a 16GB SDHC worked.

What I'm talking about is that Amazon Kindle support is telling people that it's not recommended and not advisable ... and "might" void the warranty ...

And then on the other hand, they are selling the damn thing to Kindle users as the "accessory to have."

I ordered a 4GB SD (not HC) which cost me a little bit more actually, than the 8GB HDSC I originally had on order ... and it should arrive today ... but I'm just a bit miffed at the lack of real information coupled with the old hard sell elsewhere.

Kind of hard for something that can't damage a device to void a warrantee. Someone doesn't have their facts straight at Amazon. The Kindle will either recognize the card or it won't, no damage done.

Those cards can hold a lot of books, be sure to back it up :book2:

Those cards can hold a lot of books, be sure to back it up :book2:

Not a problem. I've got several terrabytes of storage on the home PC. Everything is backed up, and then backed up again by my Mirra server.

I have a 4GB SD card in my Kindle (and would love to have a working 8GB) because I also have 1GB of MP3s on my machine and about 300 free public domain classics on the card and pictures. I only have purchased books on my Kindle itself. It is a pain to scroll so many books but that is why the search is so cool.

I have a 4GB SD card in my Kindle (and would love to have a working 8GB) because I also have 1GB of MP3s on my machine and about 300 free public domain classics on the card and pictures. I only have purchased books on my Kindle itself. It is a pain to scroll so many books but that is why the search is so cool.

Well, I'm told that an 8GB card will work ... and that a 16GB card will work.

I don't do a lot of turning pages to find the books I want. I too just do a search ... and more than likely, I'll purchase a larger card very soon.

I don't have MP3s on my Kindle. I don't listen to music while reading and randomly playing the tracks in an audio book sounds like an interesting experiment, but not a very satisfactory way to follow the plot.

I have a 2G SD card in my Kindle -- taken from my camera when I upgraded it to 8G so it would hold a decent-length video. I only have 100 book files on my Kindle (core memory and SD card combined) because I don't want to have to search through too many books. Instead, I keep my entire eBook library on a USB drive that lives in my backpack and goes everywhere with me. I can mount the USB drive and the Kindle at the same time and move files between the two very easily.

When my sister got her Kindle, I bought a 1G SD card for $14 and put over 250 files on it -- many files containing multiple books. Those files took up only 135M of the 1G.

As you can see, the way I use my Kindle, I'm not a candidate for a large-capacity SD card. Now, give me a software update that provides some kind of organization by folders or "bookshelves" and gives me MP3 playlist capability -- I could change my mind very quickly.

On my 'settings' it shows I've got 100mb available....I"m halfway filled up. Should I buy an sd card? Will it make my Kindle more efficient? In reading your posts, I'm thinking a 2 or 4 gb would be plenty for me.......

And please, someone, explain to me, step by step, how to 'back up' books I have on my Kindle to my laptop. I have no clue how I've gotten as far as I have......

Thanks!

On my 'settings' it shows I've got 100mb available....I"m halfway filled up. Should I buy an sd card? Will it make my Kindle more efficient? In reading your posts, I'm thinking a 2 or 4 gb would be plenty for me.......

And please, someone, explain to me, step by step, how to 'back up' books I have on my Kindle to my laptop. I have no clue how I've gotten as far as I have......

Thanks!

I don't know about more efficient, but it will give you a lot more space, and not for all that much money. I've got a 4GB on mine now, and that should give me enough space to keep about 4,000 books.

Backing up is easy. Just hook your Kindle up via USB. Your book will be detected as a drive on your computer.

On your PC, just create a folder (I called mine "My Ebooks") where you want to back up all of your books. Then move over to your Kindle, and either Control plus click on just the books you want to back up, or ... control plus A to select all, then Control plus C to copy, then move back to your PC and into the folder you created and Control plus V to paste them all in that folder.

There are also some very inexpensive programs that you can purchase to keep your files between the two in sync. My favorite is GoodSync. That will compare both directories and then make copies as necessary to keep everything the same.

On my 'settings' it shows I've got 100mb available....I"m halfway filled up. Should I buy an sd card? Will it make my Kindle more efficient? In reading your posts, I'm thinking a 2 or 4 gb would be plenty for me.......

And please, someone, explain to me, step by step, how to 'back up' books I have on my Kindle to my laptop. I have no clue how I've gotten as far as I have......

Thanks!

Is this a Windows laptop? If so, you should download and install MobiDesktop 6.0. It will do this for you. Here it is:

http://mason.gmu.edu/~nhoffeld/Mobipocket6.zip

Thanks.......to both of you.

Is this a Windows laptop? If so, you should download and install MobiDesktop 6.0. It will do this for you. Here it is:

http://mason.gmu.edu/~nhoffeld/Mobipocket6.zip

Will it do all the books?? Including the Kindle azw (?) files??

Will it do all the books?? Including the Kindle azw (?) files??

I don't think it will, unfortunately. But if you rename the AZW to PRC, then it should handle them.

I don't think it will, unfortunately. But if you rename the AZW to PRC, then it should handle them.

Eh .... not certain I'd want to go through the trouble. But then, I already have a copy of Goodsync.

Not kidding ... it's a great program for making backups. And cheap too.

Will it do all the books?? Including the Kindle azw (?) files??

No -- MobiPocket Reader doesn't "see" the .azw files/books. It only knows .prc or .mobi

First of all, the books you purchase from Amazon are backed up for you at Amazon and you can download them again and again. But, if you're a bit methodical, you can also transfer them from the Kindle to your PC or to auxiliary storage attached to your PC.

I have the following:

1 - A 2G "thumb" drive with all of the books I have downloaded except for the Harvard Classics and those purchased at Amazon.
2 - A 120G USB "pocket" drive with all my books on it. I have also transferred all my books purchased from Amazon from the Kindle to this hard drive.
3 - A 400G USB drive which backs up the pocket drive.

#1 and #2 live in my backpack along with my laptop and go everywhere I go. My laptop has two USB ports, so I can mount any two devices (usually the Kindle and the pocket drive) and transfer files from one to the other.

Except on the Kindle, I keep the book files in folders with the name of the source. Therefore I have folders named MobileRead, Feedbooks, Manybooks, Fictionwise, Baen, TOR, Amazon, etc. I usually download to my laptop hard drive and then transfer the files to the thumb drive and pocket drive periodically.

No -- MobiPocket Reader doesn't "see" the .azw files/books. It only knows .prc or .mobi

First of all, the books you purchase from Amazon are backed up for you at Amazon and you can download them again and again. But, if you're a bit methodical, you can also transfer them from the Kindle to your PC or to auxiliary storage attached to your PC.

I have the following:

1 - A 2G "thumb" drive with all of the books I have downloaded except for the Harvard Classics and those purchased at Amazon.
2 - A 120G USB "pocket" drive with all my books on it. I have also transferred all my books purchased from Amazon from the Kindle to this hard drive.
3 - A 400G USB drive which backs up the pocket drive.

#1 and #2 live in my backpack along with my laptop and go everywhere I go. My laptop has two USB ports, so I can mount any two devices (usually the Kindle and the pocket drive) and transfer files from one to the other.

Except on the Kindle, I keep the book files in folders with the name of the source. Therefore I have folders named MobileRead, Feedbooks, Manybooks, Fictionwise, Baen, TOR, Amazon, etc. I usually download to my laptop hard drive and then transfer the files to the thumb drive and pocket drive periodically.

Yeah, I realize that Amazon keeps a backup for you, and that is nice ... however, I like having a backup on my own media. I'm the sort of person who just KNOWS that there will come a time when I simply MUST read a particular book, and I won't be in Whispernet territory, and the internet connection will be down ,,,, silly I know .... but there you have it.

I have a 1.5 terrabyte backup server at my house dedicated to my artwork, documents, music and ebooks. I sync it daily to the main drives on my PC. It only takes a second, and I never have to worry about losing stuff.

I was going to set it up as a mirrored RAID, but liked the idea of a physical sync instead ... so, goodbye RAID and hello JBOD with Goodsync.

I don't listen to music while reading and randomly playing the tracks in an audio book sounds like an interesting experiment, but not a very satisfactory way to follow the plot.Now I'm confused - I use my Kindle for Audible books all the time (and therefore need an 8GB card). But I don't understand your reference to "randomly playing the tracks".

How do you organize your audio books on the Kindle card? When you turn off the Kindle does the audio book resume where you left off? Have you ever tired to download audio books from one of the web library services, and if so, did it work. I use my ipod most of the time for audio books, but, of course all the library downloads are mp3, and not compatible. Lastly, what kind of battery life do you experience between charges when listening to audio files on your Kindle?

Now I'm confused - I use my Kindle for Audible books all the time (and therefore need an 8GB card). But I don't understand your reference to "randomly playing the tracks".

It sounds like Elsi puts the MP3s in the Music folder, not the Audible folder. The music player is rather limited.

It sounds like Elsi puts the MP3s in the Music folder, not the Audible folder. The music player is rather limited. I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

Yeah, I realize that Amazon keeps a backup for you, and that is nice ... however, I like having a backup on my own media. I'm the sort of person who just KNOWS that there will come a time when I simply MUST read a particular book, and I won't be in Whispernet territory, and the internet connection will be down ,,,, silly I know .... but there you have it. I back up the books from Amazon on my own hard drives. After mounting the Kindle, I just select the files and copy to my backup device.

My earlier comment is that if you try to use the MobiPocket Reader to "sync" your Kindle, the MobiPocket Reader software isn't aware of the .azw format files.

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

If you put an mp3 in the Audible folder, it will be listed with your ebooks. But since you have that many mp3s, I don't think this option will work for you.

But you might want to try it with one or two because the audiobook player is nicely implemented.

P.S. If the MP3s don't appear with the ebooks, then you need to make sure the tags are set correctly. I beleive it's the genre tag that the Kindle looks for. It doesn't matter what it's set to so long as it is set.

I back up the books from Amazon on my own hard drives. After mounting the Kindle, I just select the files and copy to my backup device.

My earlier comment is that if you try to use the MobiPocket Reader to "sync" your Kindle, the MobiPocket Reader software isn't aware of the .azw format files.

I understand that. That's why I use goodsync. It performs a sync without reference to the type of files.

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

No, the Kindle only plays audible files in proper audio book sequence. You can't properly sequence mp3 audio books to be "read" on a Kindle.

I only have MP3s. I did not believe that the Kindle would play MP3s from the /audible folder -- just the .aa files downloaded from Audible.com. But, without a playlist capability, how do I get the Kindle to play the tracks in the right order? My current audio book is 19 tracks per disk, and 12 disks. That's 228 MP3 files!

Why don't you join all the tracks on each CD so you only have one file per CD? Would it be easier this way? You would have 12 files instead of 228. Are you able to select a specific file/song to play? (I have yet to use the MP3 player.)

Also, I am pretty sure .aa files are just renamed MP3s.

BOb

Why don't you join all the tracks on each CD so you only have one file per CD? Would it be easier this way? You would have 12 files instead of 228. Are you able to select a specific file/song to play? (I have yet to use the MP3 player.)

Also, I am pretty sure .aa files are just renamed MP3s.

BOb
To be honest, I'm not really interested in using the Kindle to play audio books. I could see some value if one wanted to listen to a book at the same time she were reading the words. But not for my typical use of audio books. I "read" audio books at those times when it is not safe for me to be reading with my eyes. That's primarily when I'm driving. My car has a CD player, and I have a Sony portable MP3 player smaller a hotel room key. (In fact, it lives in one of those envelopes that Hampton Inn used to put my key in back in February.

So, for me, how the Kindle handles audio files and books is purely an academic exercise.

Why don't you join all the tracks on each CD so you only have one file per CD? Would it be easier this way? You would have 12 files instead of 228. Are you able to select a specific file/song to play? (I have yet to use the MP3 player.)

Also, I am pretty sure .aa files are just renamed MP3s.

BOb

aa files are most definitely not MP3s. They have better compression than MP3's and have embedded DRM. What makes you think they are mp3's?

Dale