Backup notes & restore

thibaulthalpern · 03-31-2009, 01:29 AM

How does one backup the notes stored on the PRS-700? And how does one restore them after erasing the PRS-700?

I use Calibre to manage my library and transfer books to the PRS-700. Once in a while I may need to format the PRS-700 and before I do that I'd like to backup the notes and then later restore them after I copy the books from Calibre to the PRS-700.

thibaulthalpern · 03-31-2009, 11:13 PM

Wow! So no one really knows eh? Hmm...I guess not many people really use their PRS-700 to mark up their books presumably because most are reading for leisure?

kovidgoyal · 03-31-2009, 11:17 PM

the notes are stored in an XML file on your reader. I can't recall if its media.xml or another XML file. As for restoring them, that's non-trivial

ddave · 03-31-2009, 11:23 PM

Can we copy the file to a computer and extract / copy the comments into a PC document or text file?

kovidgoyal · 04-01-2009, 12:06 AM

yeah you can, XML files are just simple text files, so you can open them in a text editor

thibaulthalpern · 04-01-2009, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

the notes are stored in an XML file on your reader. I can't recall if its media.xml or another XML file. As for restoring them, that's non-trivial

Oh wow!

So imagine...
let's say I copy the .XML file to my hard drive, then I erase the memory of the PRS-700. Then, I use calibre copy the books to the PRS-700. I also manually copy (drag) the .XML file to the appropriate folder on the PRS-700.

Will this method work for restoring the links between the notes and the actual books?

thibaulthalpern · 04-01-2009, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ddave

Can we copy the file to a computer and extract / copy the comments into a PC document or text file?

The problem is that annotations are often not useful when read out-of-context of the main text. It's like reading just the footnotes of a book without realising what it's referring to. Not useful in many cases.

kovidgoyal · 04-01-2009, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thibaulthalpern

Oh wow!

So imagine...
let's say I copy the .XML file to my hard drive, then I erase the memory of the PRS-700. Then, I use calibre copy the books to the PRS-700. I also manually copy (drag) the .XML file to the appropriate folder on the PRS-700.

Will this method work for restoring the links between the notes and the actual books?

Most probably not, since IIRC it uses id numbers to establish the link and these will change when you re-upload

thibaulthalpern · 04-01-2009, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Most probably not, since IIRC it uses id numbers to establish the link and these will change when you re-upload

Oh dear...

kitlaan · 04-01-2009, 09:22 PM

I think as long as you don't change the book and it's location, it should still work. The "cacheExt.xml" file seems to associate the notes by the path to the book. (Even if the path changes, you may be able to modify the XML file to match.)

I'll add this to my list of things to experiment with in the future.

thibaulthalpern · 04-01-2009, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kitlaan

I think as long as you don't change the book and it's location, it should still work. The "cacheExt.xml" file seems to associate the notes by the path to the book. (Even if the path changes, you may be able to modify the XML file to match.)

I'll add this to my list of things to experiment with in the future.

It'll be great if you could experiment it because I already have a significant amount of notes with one book I'm reading and dare not experiment with it!

03-31-2009, 01:29 AM	#1
thibaulthalpern Evangelist Posts: 478 Karma: 451808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: California, USA Device: my two eyes, KLiiK, Sony PRS-700	Backup notes & restore How does one backup the notes stored on the PRS-700? And how does one restore them after erasing the PRS-700? I use Calibre to manage my library and transfer books to the PRS-700. Once in a while I may need to format the PRS-700 and before I do that I'd like to backup the notes and then later restore them after I copy the books from Calibre to the PRS-700.

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03-31-2009, 11:13 PM	#2
thibaulthalpern Evangelist Posts: 478 Karma: 451808 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: California, USA Device: my two eyes, KLiiK, Sony PRS-700	Wow! So no one really knows eh? Hmm...I guess not many people really use their PRS-700 to mark up their books presumably because most are reading for leisure?

03-31-2009, 11:17 PM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	the notes are stored in an XML file on your reader. I can't recall if its media.xml or another XML file. As for restoring them, that's non-trivial

03-31-2009, 11:23 PM	#4
ddave Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Minnesota, USA Device: none	Can we copy the file to a computer and extract / copy the comments into a PC document or text file?

04-01-2009, 12:06 AM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	yeah you can, XML files are just simple text files, so you can open them in a text editor

04-01-2009, 09:22 PM	#10
kitlaan Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 18 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: PRS-700	I think as long as you don't change the book and it's location, it should still work. The "cacheExt.xml" file seems to associate the notes by the path to the book. (Even if the path changes, you may be able to modify the XML file to match.) I'll add this to my list of things to experiment with in the future.

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