[bauerhjb]

My hard drive failed but a friend was able to recover my calibre library files on a new laptop using Win 11. I have been trying to move, install, copy these files to a second laptop using Win 10. This laptop already had a broken library which I deleted via calibre and then deleted the files manually. I then deleted the program itself. I rebooted. I reinstalled calibre. I tried using the export function on my recovered library in order to move it to the Win 10 machine, but it failed. Unfortunately I did not copy the error message. I then tried the old method of copying the library to the Win 10 laptop. It worked and my laptop shows the 22,900 folders in the calibre home library. However when I run calibre it only recognized 12,100 folders. I tried to point to this location and calibre states it is already looking to it.
Sooo, I am wondering if I need to delete the metadata.db and the metadata_db_prefs_backup.json and have calibre rebuild the database? I know I could just use the library on the Win 11 laptop but I hate, loathe and despise this version. I had planned on using the Win 11 as my backup machine. Please be kind, I am an old lady who get frustrated when things don't go as they are supposed to. I don't program and figure I am pushing my limits to understand as much computer stuff as I do. Any kind help would be appreciated.