Windows 7 at home, and XP at work...

wolfskies · 06-10-2015, 06:37 PM

Okay, I am trying to find out if this will work. I have Windows 7 at home. I have the older version of Calibre on a portable HD that I take to work with me.

My older version has a lot of messed up stuff in it including messed up author names, etc. If I move everything painstakingly to the newer version to correct and fix the old info, can I copy it back to the older installation, and it still run with the older version of XP? Or should I install the older version in another directory of my HD and start over again?

BetterRed · 06-10-2015, 07:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfskies

Okay, I am trying to find out if this will work. I have Windows 7 at home. I have the older version of Calibre on a portable HD that I take to work with me.

My older version has a lot of messed up stuff in it including messed up author names, etc. If I move everything painstakingly to the newer version to correct and fix the old info, can I copy it back to the older installation, and it still run with the older version of XP? Or should I install the older version in another directory of my HD and start over again?

@wolfskies - assuming the library on your Win 7 System is in reasonable shape, try this:

Put calibre portable version 1.48 (CP1.48) on the portable hard disk (if its not already there)
Start it up on your Win 7 system,
Use the Switch/create library dialogue to access the library on your Win 7 systems hard disk
if it works (it should) and it's OK for you speed wise and functionally, then
.
- close CP1.48
- copy that library to the portable drive with a name that won't overwrite the existing library - you should have something like this
- start CP1.48,
- use Switch/create library to access the 'New Library' on the portable drive.
- make sure it works OK
- take the portable drive to work and check it out

BR

BookJunkieLI · 06-11-2015, 12:56 PM

I have the exact same situation you do in that I have Windows 7 at home and XP at work and I keep my libraries on a portable hard drive.

The simple answer to your question is, yes, any version of Calibre will be able to access and edit your library no matter which version it was created with or last edited with.

Since the newer versions of Calibre do have some features that I like to use I have it installed on my Win7 machine as well as the latest portable version on the portable hard drive. On my XP machine at work I have 1.48 installed and I have it directed to look for the library on my portable hard drive since it always assigns the same drive letter to the portable drive.
To do that right-click on the icon shortcut for Calibre on your XP machine.
Click on Properties
In the Target field enter "location of calibre.exe" --with-library "location of your library"
---In my case it looks like this: "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" --with-library "E:\Calibre Portable\EditLibrary"

If you find that your computer does not always assign your portable drive the same letter then you will either need to tell Calibre where your library is every time you open it or install the 1.48 version of Calibre Portable on your drive and use that at work.

theducks · 06-11-2015, 01:05 PM

Bookjunkie
you could install Calibre Portable 1.48 on the portable HD and still access the Library with the latest at home.
That way - Any system, no need to have Calibre installed there

eschwartz · 06-11-2015, 01:27 PM

The calibre database format is pretty stable -- I don't believe it has changed in a few years, and libraries *should* be backwards compatible.

Of course this should not be blindly depended on.

The only issue I can think of that would definitely show up is e.g. using newly-added template functions, which will simply warn you on old versions that there was a template parsing error.

BookJunkieLI · 06-11-2015, 01:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Bookjunkie
you could install Calibre Portable 1.48 on the portable HD and still access the Library with the latest at home.
That way - Any system, no need to have Calibre installed there

Both my desktop and laptop at home have Windows 7 so I'd rather have the latest version on the portable drive. Plus I still have some old libraries stored in Dropbox that I periodically access from work so I have 1.48 installed on that computer anyway.

Honestly the thing to do would probably be to install both 1.48 and the latest version on the portable drive and then just get the 1.48 version to look in the latest version Calibre Portable directory for the library. Hmmm.

I may have to test that this weekend. After making copious backups of course.

06-10-2015, 06:37 PM	#1
wolfskies Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2013 Device: Nook Color & Android Tablet & Windows 11 PC	Windows 7 at home, and XP at work... Okay, I am trying to find out if this will work. I have Windows 7 at home. I have the older version of Calibre on a portable HD that I take to work with me. My older version has a lot of messed up stuff in it including messed up author names, etc. If I move everything painstakingly to the newer version to correct and fix the old info, can I copy it back to the older installation, and it still run with the older version of XP? Or should I install the older version in another directory of my HD and start over again?

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06-11-2015, 12:56 PM	#3
BookJunkieLI Evangelist Posts: 435 Karma: 572984 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Long Island Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kindle 4, Nook Gl4, Nook STR, REB 1100, Ebookwise 1500,	I have the exact same situation you do in that I have Windows 7 at home and XP at work and I keep my libraries on a portable hard drive. The simple answer to your question is, yes, any version of Calibre will be able to access and edit your library no matter which version it was created with or last edited with. Since the newer versions of Calibre do have some features that I like to use I have it installed on my Win7 machine as well as the latest portable version on the portable hard drive. On my XP machine at work I have 1.48 installed and I have it directed to look for the library on my portable hard drive since it always assigns the same drive letter to the portable drive. To do that right-click on the icon shortcut for Calibre on your XP machine. Click on Properties In the Target field enter "location of calibre.exe" --with-library "location of your library" ---In my case it looks like this: "C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" --with-library "E:\Calibre Portable\EditLibrary" If you find that your computer does not always assign your portable drive the same letter then you will either need to tell Calibre where your library is every time you open it or install the 1.48 version of Calibre Portable on your drive and use that at work.

06-11-2015, 01:05 PM	#4
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,046 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Bookjunkie you could install Calibre Portable 1.48 on the portable HD and still access the Library with the latest at home. That way - Any system, no need to have Calibre installed there

06-11-2015, 01:27 PM	#5
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	The calibre database format is pretty stable -- I don't believe it has changed in a few years, and libraries should be backwards compatible. Of course this should not be blindly depended on. The only issue I can think of that would definitely show up is e.g. using newly-added template functions, which will simply warn you on old versions that there was a template parsing error.

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