New computer, cannot export from old - please help!

[Nomadiana]

Hiya,
I've got about 400 books in Calibre on my old netbook, but cannot seem to export the library in order to get them into my new computer. I followed the export instructions, and was trying to save them to a thumb drive so I could then plug that into my new laptop to import there. Well, I tried on two different thumb drives, but the export timed out and failed on both because "not enough space." There was close to 3 gb available on the second drive - how many do I need for 400 books? I deleted what I could, but I have a feeling I still won't have enough room (one thumb drive is only 1GB, the other is 4GB).

More questions:
Can I choose to export only part of the library a little at a time, and do it that way?

OR can I zip the containing folder down and create a .zip archive to do this?

OR, will I have to buy a new gigantic thumb drive?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

[BetterRed]

To determine how big the library is - right click library folder, select Properties, make sure you're on the General Tab and watch while it accumulates the size, e.g.



That is a library of ~3,500 books - at least 2 formats/book.

Probably not much point in compressing, many of the files are probably already compressed - the Export feature compresses anyway.

1 & 4 GB thumb drives are pretty small by today's standards - a 32GB drive shouldn't cost more than a couple of espresso coffees.

BR

[theducks]

Second BR's 4G drives are tiny in today's thinking.

Can you set up a 'share' on your new machine that the old one can use (modern security has made sharing between different OS, more difficult)?
Then just export to a temp folder on the new machine.

[Nomadiana]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

That is a library of ~3,500 books - at least 2 formats/book.

Probably not much point in compressing, many of the files are probably already compressed - the Export feature compresses anyway.

Hmm, yours is a much bigger library than mine and yet mine is 7.25 GB! For 1220 files / 748 folders.


I just remembered I put a 16GB memory card in my phone recently. Maybe I can save my library there and then connect the phone to the new computer?

I know my thumb drives are small, but I can't go out and buy new ones at this time.

[Nomadiana]

Originally Posted by Nomadiana

I just remembered I put a 16GB memory card in my phone recently. Maybe I can save my library there and then connect the phone to the new computer?

Phone is set up for transferring files but apparently only for transferring OUT, not IN. Ugh.

[bornmusician]

Originally Posted by Nomadiana

Phone is set up for transferring files but apparently only for transferring OUT, not IN. Ugh.

When you connect your phone to your computer, does it show up as a removable drive in your file explorer? If you have a card in it, you may see two drives show up - one for the phone storage & one for the card.



If it does show up, you should be able to just copy/paste the files onto the card, then connect the phone to the new computer & repeat the process.