Hey folks, sorry to ignore people who are trying to help. I just got frustrated and unplugged the SOB and decided to read books for awhile instead of $#@^ with files and software.
BetterRed - I'm on XP. sp3. Re formatting on the HDD, I was told,
"Probably Win 7 (but maybe XP). Should have been formatted as NTFS (which has not changed for the last ten years or so)." But I was getting delayed write fail messages on that drive, so transferred everything over to another identical empty (used) drive. I don't even remember formatting that drive, but I must have in order to use it, right?
piperclassique - Backup? Moi? No, but lesson learned. I think I have the original files still, but who knows if the 184,572 files Windows says I have is what I started out with. I see the suggestion for " One Book per directory, Different Format option" and don't have a clue. Why would I want a different format? calibre isn't exactly intuitive for me. I suppose I shall get it sorted out one way or the other eventually.
derangedhermit - Cats? Well, sure. But I thought it must be the pythons causing the problems. The hatchlings which crawl in the USB ports to stay warm.