Calibre just destroyed my hard drive data - Page 7

Sydney's Mom · 05-06-2011, 12:37 AM

Another little trick to keep yourself out of trouble. Create a user account, and use that instead of the admin account. Sometimes I have to log out as user and log back in as administrator to do something, but it really gives me time to think.

Worldwalker · 05-06-2011, 12:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atjnjk

Maybe you could (somewhat) force users to read the message by adding a delay before one could click the yes button.

They still wouldn't read it. They'd just gripe about the delay.

PEBCAK errors and ID-Ten-T errors are untrappable and often unrecoverable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dz1

I'm not asking for much. Just give me other options other than using calibre. If there are no other options then just say so.

There are no options that are safe from ID-Ten-T errors.

If this was a genuine Calibre problem instead of a user error, others of the million or so regular Calibre users would have said something. There's a website I'm very fond of -- www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com -- which, aside from being an excellent place to find out if a site is borked or just my connection is, is also an excellent reminder that I am not alone -- if I'm the only person who is reporting a problem, it's probably just me, and I should look into what I'm doing wrong. Especially before I make a fool of myself in public.

Sweetpea · 05-06-2011, 02:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by travger

Several warnings will not help. My dvd-recorder always asks me twice about deletions and I still occasionally manage to delete before catching myself. I am just so very sure that I'm deleting the right thing.

Yep, and that's most likely because of this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Yees, and help creating a generation that has only learned that these messages are mere reaction tests.

There needs to be a middle ground between "let the user run into a wall" and "ask him at every step if he didn't forget to breathe".

But I like the new message, especially the extra warning that non-book files will be deleted as well. That might have not been too clear (wouldn't know, personally, as I haven't deleted a library yet)

Cyberman tM · 05-06-2011, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atjnjk

Maybe you could (somewhat) force users to read the message by adding a delay before one could click the yes button.

Is there anyone who doesn't HATE those programs? And looks anywhere but the message while waiting?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

But I like the new message, especially the extra warning that non-book files will be deleted as well. That might have not been too clear (wouldn't know, personally, as I haven't deleted a library yet)

I certainly like the new warning too. I was speaking against having a "Are you sure? - Are you REALLY sure? - Do you REALLY, REALLY know what you're doing? - Seriously?" kind of message.

atjnjk · 05-06-2011, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Is there anyone who doesn't HATE those programs? And looks anywhere but the message while waiting?

I only hate delay dialogs if I ALWAYS do something that show them (like installing 10 firefox extensions everyday). I don't think one need to delete a calibre's library that often. I confess that I never use this "Delete Library" thing, so I don't care about it

. If I want to delete a library, I remove it myself.

ApK · 05-06-2011, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

Is there anyone who doesn't HATE those programs? And looks anywhere but the message while waiting?

I certainly like the new warning too. I was speaking against having a "Are you sure? - Are you REALLY sure? - Do you REALLY, REALLY know what you're doing? - Seriously?" kind of message.

In some apps I've worked on, I have been explicitly asked by some customers to add an addition "REALLY REALLY" dialog before doing certain operations, and I've been asked by others to take all the dialogs away.
In some of our apps we have a setting to enable/disable specific warnings.

Still, though....storing important data on the Windows desktop...

Sweetpea · 05-06-2011, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyberman tM

I certainly like the new warning too. I was speaking against having a "Are you sure? - Are you REALLY sure? - Do you REALLY, REALLY know what you're doing? - Seriously?" kind of message.

So do I... In case you still hadn't noticed, I was in jest on that one...

Kitabi · 05-06-2011, 12:05 PM

I think the apt analogy here is leaving knives where kids can reach them. No amount of warning will deter a young one from using it as (s)he pleases.

What I would suggest is boxing off these things into a "Power User" mode which can be enabled either through an admin user or through a "Power user Mode" checkbox at the minimum.

daleperchn · 05-08-2011, 06:54 AM

As I read thru here, I had two ideas, both of which were already mentioned:

1. I liked the idea of adding to the deletion dialog the fact that non-ebooks will be deleted. Thanks for adding that!

2. I also liked the idea of the countdown timer. In this case I don't know if it would have helped, but I know that there have been a couple times in the past I've deleted something (in other software), then a half-second later realized that I made a mistake. Of course that would depend on the user actively considering their action while they're waiting... The wait can also be a pain, but since this shouldn't be a frequent action, I wouldn't think it would be a big deal to wait. At least I wouldn't mind a 5 second countdown for something that could have catastrophic results if I screw it up.

One other idea that someone mentioned that I liked was the idea of a file count of what might be deleted. I know you want to keep the deletion message simple, and I don't know how hard that would be to code, or what kind of delay might be involved while the program gathers the info. But that might be useful info to see. If I'm expecting to see 2k files deleted, and it shows 100k, I might catch the mistake. Don't know if it would have helped this user or not, but it might help other users... Then again, it won't help if the user doesn't pay attention. But if it's not hard to code...

Oh, and as always, thanks a bunch for all the work you've put into this! You've done a great job!

sabredog · 05-08-2011, 07:42 AM

I am a civil engineer for my daytime job, specialising in roads and drainage. Our mantra when designing a road is simply...

"You cannot cater for the [insert your choice of epithet here] silly 2% of road users all the time."

I certainly think that is completely applicable here.

I shudder when I see PC users at work with all sorts of documents on their desktop, which are not safe and sound in appropriate folders that are backed up each night.

Witchdoctor63 · 05-08-2011, 10:50 AM

dz1 will not find a better program the Calibre. Calibre is the only eBook manager which I will ever use. Thank you Team!!

Ben0 · 05-08-2011, 05:16 PM

I usually move all my converted titles to/from appropriately named folders (txt, pdb, html, PDF) to (fiction, tech, theology) on redundant media, SDHC (multiple copies) for safekeeping.

Stampercam · 05-08-2011, 05:58 PM

Hmmm, After reading this topic with interest (thanks for the laugh Manichean by the way

) I learnt something about calibre that I didn't already know. I'm a shift del kind of person and kind of ignore the recycle bin. I always thought that when I deleted or merged titles in calibre that they were just deleted. I've just now checked my recycle bin and after a year of playing around with calibre, deleting, starting new libraries, changing my mind, starting again, tidying etc (can you see the ocd in me?) my recycle bin has 60GB to be deleted! It seems there are always more things to learn about calibre, and that's just a simple example.

peegee · 05-09-2011, 07:35 AM

"rm -rf /" is no fun anymore

It was patched a while back so you just get an error message now, you have to add another flag to actually delete everything.

BlackVoid · 05-09-2011, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dz1

I'm not asking for much. Just give me other options other than using calibre.

BookDesigner
PDF2EBUB

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05-06-2011, 12:37 AM	#91
Sydney's Mom Wizard Posts: 2,899 Karma: 6995721 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Idaho, on the side of a mountain Device: Kindle Oasis, Fire 3d Gen and 5th Gen and Samsung Tab S	Another little trick to keep yourself out of trouble. Create a user account, and use that instead of the admin account. Sometimes I have to log out as user and log back in as administrator to do something, but it really gives me time to think.

05-06-2011, 12:05 PM	#98
Kitabi Connoisseur Posts: 77 Karma: 66 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Nook	I think the apt analogy here is leaving knives where kids can reach them. No amount of warning will deter a young one from using it as (s)he pleases. What I would suggest is boxing off these things into a "Power User" mode which can be enabled either through an admin user or through a "Power user Mode" checkbox at the minimum.

05-08-2011, 06:54 AM	#99
daleperchn Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: kindle	As I read thru here, I had two ideas, both of which were already mentioned: 1. I liked the idea of adding to the deletion dialog the fact that non-ebooks will be deleted. Thanks for adding that! 2. I also liked the idea of the countdown timer. In this case I don't know if it would have helped, but I know that there have been a couple times in the past I've deleted something (in other software), then a half-second later realized that I made a mistake. Of course that would depend on the user actively considering their action while they're waiting... The wait can also be a pain, but since this shouldn't be a frequent action, I wouldn't think it would be a big deal to wait. At least I wouldn't mind a 5 second countdown for something that could have catastrophic results if I screw it up. One other idea that someone mentioned that I liked was the idea of a file count of what might be deleted. I know you want to keep the deletion message simple, and I don't know how hard that would be to code, or what kind of delay might be involved while the program gathers the info. But that might be useful info to see. If I'm expecting to see 2k files deleted, and it shows 100k, I might catch the mistake. Don't know if it would have helped this user or not, but it might help other users... Then again, it won't help if the user doesn't pay attention. But if it's not hard to code... Oh, and as always, thanks a bunch for all the work you've put into this! You've done a great job!

05-08-2011, 07:42 AM	#100
sabredog Geographically Restricted Posts: 2,630 Karma: 14933353 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Perth, Australia Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2	I am a civil engineer for my daytime job, specialising in roads and drainage. Our mantra when designing a road is simply... "You cannot cater for the [insert your choice of epithet here] silly 2% of road users all the time." I certainly think that is completely applicable here. I shudder when I see PC users at work with all sorts of documents on their desktop, which are not safe and sound in appropriate folders that are backed up each night.

05-08-2011, 10:50 AM	#101
Witchdoctor63 Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Kindle	dz1 will not find a better program the Calibre. Calibre is the only eBook manager which I will ever use. Thank you Team!!

05-08-2011, 05:16 PM	#102
Ben0 Retired Field Engineer Posts: 21 Karma: 62 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Daly City, CA Device: Astak EZ Reader Pro, Ectaco JBL	I usually move all my converted titles to/from appropriately named folders (txt, pdb, html, PDF) to (fiction, tech, theology) on redundant media, SDHC (multiple copies) for safekeeping.

05-08-2011, 05:58 PM	#103
Stampercam Connoisseur Posts: 86 Karma: 19674 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: ipad, MiGear	Hmmm, After reading this topic with interest (thanks for the laugh Manichean by the way ) I learnt something about calibre that I didn't already know. I'm a shift del kind of person and kind of ignore the recycle bin. I always thought that when I deleted or merged titles in calibre that they were just deleted. I've just now checked my recycle bin and after a year of playing around with calibre, deleting, starting new libraries, changing my mind, starting again, tidying etc (can you see the ocd in me?) my recycle bin has 60GB to be deleted! It seems there are always more things to learn about calibre, and that's just a simple example.

05-09-2011, 07:35 AM	#104
peegee Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 574 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: kindle	"rm -rf /" is no fun anymore It was patched a while back so you just get an error message now, you have to add another flag to actually delete everything.