To make long story short, I'm TERRIBLE with organizing my stuff. I kept putting it off to clean up the folders/files, but I keep adding more eBooks and stuff, and Now I'm dealing with the consequences. I'm running out of space on my computer, so I've transferred all my eBooks onto an external HD. It's seriously bad to the point that I have 20 GB (yes you read that right) of eBooks to deal with.
My folder system is really messed up. I have ONE folder for the entire eBook library, then I have 40 different folders with authors' names that may/may not be in the real Calibre Library, and 4-5 of the folders have a library of many many eBooks. So it's as if I have folder inside of a folder inside of a folder kind of thing going on. Basically I want to take out every single book I have, and start fresh.
I'm extremely lost on how can I consolidate my entire collection, get rid of any duplicates, and clean up the folder system.
I understand that Calibre creates a library, and creates a folder per author, then a folder per book. Very simple system.
However, somewhere along the way using Calibre and the plugins, I noticed that the filing system is really messed up where it's very annoying. I would get King, Stephen folder AND King_Stephen. Some are duplicates, and some aren't. I have 5 folders with Tolkien's name...due to the J.R.R. then J. R. R., J.R.R, and other variations. There got to be a way to combine all books by the same author into one simple folder.
So, I need STEP BY STEP in fixing this thing! In a sense, I'm starting over with this thing.
Thanks for any help at all.
EDIT - I found out about Belvedere software...do you think that will work on cleaning up the folders prior to adding books into Calibre? And I think I will do it in small batches at a time.
Lastly, if I have the Calibre software on my laptop, can I have the Calibre to read all the books off an external hard drive? I assume the answer is yes, since you have to "point Calibre" where to read. Just double checking.