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Old 08-07-2014, 11:51 AM   #1
jeremysnana
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My laptop crashed, my back up is corrupt. Help !

I posted this on the Calibre Facebook page, and was directed to post this here for more detailed assistance.

My laptop crashed, and when I tried to use my back up there was a message saying my back up was corrupt. After reading everything I could find on recovering my Calibre Library, I searched my laptop/EHD for the metadata.db file. I did not find it. Then I saw that I should be able to recover using the opf files. I searched and found a lot of opf files.

I have no idea though of how to procede from there. I would appreciate any assistance with this.
Thank you.

Last edited by jeremysnana; 08-07-2014 at 12:03 PM.
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Old 08-07-2014, 06:48 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremysnana View Post
I posted this on the Calibre Facebook page, and was directed to post this here for more detailed assistance.

My laptop crashed, and when I tried to use my back up there was a message saying my back up was corrupt. After reading everything I could find on recovering my Calibre Library, I searched my laptop/EHD for the metadata.db file. I did not find it. Then I saw that I should be able to recover using the opf files. I searched and found a lot of opf files.

I have no idea though of how to procede from there. I would appreciate any assistance with this.
Thank you.
copy the (possibly) corrupt Library folder ( the one that SHOULD have metadata.db)to the PC. This folder should contain Author folders: wihich should contain Book title folders with a number (nn). Inside should be a OPF, a cover.jpg and 0 or more formats (0formats is an empty book)

If you have this, you have a chance

On the Library icon menu: Create/switch to this folder: use existing.
Then select Rebuild library (and wait while it grinds away reading all those OPF)


After that completes, rum Library maintenance to find the remaining problems.
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Old 08-08-2014, 12:05 AM   #3
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The calibre library folder has folders with author names, within each folder is just the book cover image, nothing else at all.
I did try the create/switch thing by creating an empty folder, and dragging the author folders into it, and I got nothing at all.
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Old 08-08-2014, 12:52 AM   #4
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If only the cover images remain you can do nothing with Calibre. If possible, what you need to do is to extract the intact folder structure from what I presume is the original crashed hard drive or from your backup. When you say your laptop crashed do you mean the hard drive was corrupted? If not, what exactly happened? Where is your original hard drive, and what was done to it after the crash?
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Old 08-08-2014, 04:54 AM   #5
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Typical recovery involves removing the hard drive and access it from another computer, without booting from it. Preferably using a different OS to reduce chance of virus infection. There are different types of docks for hard drives that can be used. And immediately copy everything on the hard drive that still is readable, if any. After that look at the copy and see what can be recovered. Perhaps everything, perhaps nothing.

Calibre backups metadata for each book as a OPF-file that is stored in the same folder as the book file. If you want to recover the metadata, then you need the folder intact with both OPF-file and ebook, and possibly cover as well.

Last edited by Adoby; 08-08-2014 at 04:59 AM.
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Old 08-08-2014, 05:30 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremysnana View Post
The calibre library folder has folders with author names, within each folder is just the book cover image, nothing else at all.
I did try the create/switch thing by creating an empty folder, and dragging the author folders into it, and I got nothing at all.
That was NOT the instructions I gave.
Create/switch: Use existing. is a Library Icon menu item choice to switch Calibre to use a different library folder. At no time should you drag n drop, rename, delete (the best policy is NO-touch) the contents of any folder inside the library


This is sad news.
You have no books (formats), and NO metadata backup (the OPF file).

BTW this does not sound like a simple HD crash, the results are not randomised as would be expected from 'bad sectors'.

What is further odd, is only covers are left behind.
Deleting all FORMATS (using that option in Calibre) will still leave: cover.jpg and metadata.opf and those will be inside a THE-TITLE (nn) folder
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Old 08-08-2014, 06:04 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremysnana View Post
My laptop crashed, and when I tried to use my back up there was a message saying my back up was corrupt. After reading everything I could find on recovering my Calibre Library, I searched my laptop/EHD for the metadata.db file. I did not find it. Then I saw that I should be able to recover using the opf files. I searched and found a lot of opf files.
Where are the metadata.opf files?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremysnana View Post
The calibre library folder has folders with author names, within each folder is just the book cover image, nothing else at all.
Where are the cover.jpg files?

Please provide full paths.

BR
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Old 08-08-2014, 07:51 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by theducks View Post
That was NOT the instructions I gave.
Create/switch: Use existing. is a Library Icon menu item choice to switch Calibre to use a different library folder. At no time should you drag n drop, rename, delete (the best policy is NO-touch) the contents of any folder inside the library


This is sad news.
You have no books (formats), and NO metadata backup (the OPF file).

BTW this does not sound like a simple HD crash, the results are not randomised as would be expected from 'bad sectors'.

What is further odd, is only covers are left behind.
Deleting all FORMATS (using that option in Calibre) will still leave: cover.jpg and metadata.opf and those will be inside a THE-TITLE (nn) folder
I'm sorry, I should have said that I tried the Create/Switch thing prior to posting on the Calibre Facebook page and here.

What happened to my laptop is, I turned it on and got a Black Screen with mouse arrow. I tried System Repair, Restore to last functioning boot, and finally a full recovery. Then tried to restore my library from the back up on the EHD. Less than three days later, it crashed again.

I do own 3 Kindles, so I have been able to rebuild some of my library by bringing the books from my Kindles into the library.
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Old 08-08-2014, 07:55 AM   #9
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Originally Posted by BetterRed View Post
Where are the metadata.opf files?


Where are the cover.jpg files?

Please provide full paths.

BR
I did a search for opf on my entire computer, which included the EHD and an SD card. I have some books saved to the SD card, so those are the opf files that were found.

The jpeg files are one each in the book title folder, which are in the author folder..

E:\My Files(Judi-PC)\Native\C\Users\Judi\Calibre Library

Last edited by jeremysnana; 08-08-2014 at 08:24 AM.
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Old 08-08-2014, 07:58 AM   #10
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Originally Posted by darryl View Post
If only the cover images remain you can do nothing with Calibre. If possible, what you need to do is to extract the intact folder structure from what I presume is the original crashed hard drive or from your backup. When you say your laptop crashed do you mean the hard drive was corrupted? If not, what exactly happened? Where is your original hard drive, and what was done to it after the crash?
What happened to my laptop is, I turned it on and got a Black Screen with mouse arrow. I tried System Repair, Restore to last functioning boot, and finally a full recovery. Then tried to restore my library from the back up on the EHD. Less than three days later, it crashed again.

I do own 3 Kindles, so I have been able to rebuild some of my library by bringing the books from my Kindles into the library.
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Old 08-08-2014, 12:39 PM   #11
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I would say you have lost your library. When you elected a full restore this usually means on a laptop or notebook the loss of all data as it reimages the drive to its state when purchased. If this is the case even a forensic hard drive specialist would have difficulty recovering even some of the files. You may have more luck recovering files from your corrupt backup. W b at software did you use? What is the name and size of the backup file.
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Old 08-08-2014, 06:28 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremysnana View Post
I did a search for opf on my entire computer, which included the EHD and an SD card. I have some books saved to the SD card, so those are the opf files that were found.

The jpeg files are one each in the book title folder, which are in the author folder..

E:\My Files(Judi-PC)\Native\C\Users\Judi\Calibre Library
Gotcha (I think) - I asked because your earlier posts seemed to be inconsistent. Is the E: drive your system partition or some other partition?

Did you lose any other data - photo's, documents, videos etc? If not then its odd that only your calibre ebook library was effected.

Quote:
Originally Posted by jeremysnana View Post
My laptop crashed, and when I tried to use my back up there was a message saying my back up was corrupt.
What said it was corrupt - Windows, 3rd Party Backup/Restore software, Calibre?

When you turned your laptop on and it wouldn't start was it 'shutdown' or 'asleep' - if latter was calibre running?

I can't think of anything one could do in calibre to create the situation where the library\author\book folder structure remained in place with the cover.jpgs, but without the metadata.db file and the format and metadata.opf files.

I concur with previous posters, it looks like your library is wrecked.

BR
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Old 08-09-2014, 11:24 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by darryl View Post
I would say you have lost your library. When you elected a full restore this usually means on a laptop or notebook the loss of all data as it reimages the drive to its state when purchased. If this is the case even a forensic hard drive specialist would have difficulty recovering even some of the files. You may have more luck recovering files from your corrupt backup. W b at software did you use? What is the name and size of the backup file.
My EHD is a Toshiba Canvio 1T. Using NTI Back Up Now sw. After my complete recovery,
I searched the EHD for my Calibre folder, and found it with author folders, and the cover images only.

Since I already started loading my books back into Calibre from my Kindles, the Calibre Library file on the EHD is showing only those books I just reloaded. So I have no idea what the size of the file was. The new Library back up has mobi files, metadata.opf files, and book cover jpgs.
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Old 08-09-2014, 11:29 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by BetterRed View Post
Gotcha (I think) - I asked because your earlier posts seemed to be inconsistent. Is the E: drive your system partition or some other partition?

Did you lose any other data - photo's, documents, videos etc? If not then its odd that only your calibre ebook library was effected.


What said it was corrupt - Windows, 3rd Party Backup/Restore software, Calibre?

When you turned your laptop on and it wouldn't start was it 'shutdown' or 'asleep' - if latter was calibre running?

I can't think of anything one could do in calibre to create the situation where the library\author\book folder structure remained in place with the cover.jpgs, but without the metadata.db file and the format and metadata.opf files.

I concur with previous posters, it looks like your library is wrecked.

BR
The NTI sw said the back up was corrupt.
My laptop had been shut down since the previous night. All programs are closed prior to shut down.
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Old 08-09-2014, 11:51 AM   #15
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NTI Backup now is a dedicated backup program. Where is it storing its backup? If you actually run this program you should see an interface to restore files. I don't know the particular program but you should have some way of picking a relevant backup file and of searching your actual backup for, say, mobi and other ebook files. Your only hope here is to be able to restore from a backup.
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