[heeby]

SOLVED the problem. I wanted a backup Kindle anyway so I bought another one...opened the files to look around and both dictionaries were there in "documents" as azw files. I saved them to computer then hooked up the first Kindle with the missing tomes and copied them in and all works fine. If anyone else has deleted theirs accidentally as well I would be happy to send you a copy so you can reinstall. I don't see that this is violating any ethical concerns as it's simply restoring what was there not pirating something.

Again I have to take the blame for not paying attention to the warning message that said it would delete them. I was fiddling with Calibre at the same time I just assumed a factory reset would put it in the same condition it came out of the box in. Don't know why it deletes the dictionaries but not the Guide etc. Live and learn.

Plus side is the screens are BEAUTIFUL on the ones I kept. It took me 2 returns each time to find each good one so I had to buy 6 bleeding Kindles to get two with great screens, but they are nearly as white as my computer screen and very bold. The first two in each go were murky, greenish and bad contrast. Horrid quality control Amazon...shame on you...or shame on e-ink. I don't know if it is a QC issue e-ink has across the board of if Amazon bought a cheaper "binning" of screens but in any case it's a mess. I would have given up if I was doing this via post...being able to go right back in and change them made the difference.