Help recovering Calibre after hardware failure

markcrew · 01-15-2022, 07:50 PM

Hello!

I've been using Calibre for several years to format eBooks for my Amazon Kindles, and have over 1200 books in my Calibre library. Last month, I had a major hardware failure on my PC (Dell Alienware laptop) that I was unable to get fixed. It won't boot, & the beep code points to a problem in the video or display systems, which are all Dell-proprietary. I bought the laptop in 2014, and Dell Support told me that the system is considered to be at end-of-life at this point, and they no longer offer hardware support, replacement parts, etc. for it. Grrr!

I built a new Windows 10 desktop system to replace the laptop (all standard parts from major vendors, no more proprietary stuff for me). At this point I'm reloading apps & recovering data.

I installed Calibre from scratch on the new box, and got my Library rebuilt. My problem is that I'm now realizing how much work I have to do to recreate my previous Calibre environment - years of evolving configuration, templates, custom tweaks, etc. In many cases, as I convert books now I recognize that I'm not getting the same formatting that I did on my old system, but I don't remember how I had tweaked my old config to get what I wanted.

My question is this: I have backups of my old system from shortly before the failure available on my NAS. Are there files or directories I can restore to the new system to get me back to my old config without screwing up the new install? Or if replacing files with old copies isn't a good idea, are there files I can review to find old config that I can re-implement in the new system?

Or does the stuff I'm looking for reside in the Windows Registry? I'm very comfortable with the Registry & RegEdit (35+ yrs as a working Software Engineer). I can restore a copy of the old registry on a virtual system & start digging if someone can point me in the right direction.

Any guidance you can give me in recovering my Calibre environment is greatly appreciated. I don't think I can reconstruct it all from scratch in any reasonable amount of time by hand, and I'm looking for a better way to go about it.

Thanks,
Mark Crew
Boise, Idaho

BetterRed · 01-15-2022, 10:33 PM

There is nothing in the Windows Registry of interest to the calibre user - i.e. preference settings ettc.

What you want is in the configuration folder, on Windows that's normally kept at %APPDATA%\calibre. If your NAS has accessible backup of your old Users folder you can simply copy what's in it to to the equivalent folder on your new rig.

BR

rwmcafee · 01-16-2022, 10:07 PM

Just a thought. Can you physically access the hard drive, SSD, M2 storage device? If so, remove the storage device and install it in your new computer as another drive and access it. You can also install the device in an USB external enclosure and attach it that way.

I've done this with previous hard drives from laptops. Works great.

Ron

01-15-2022, 07:50 PM	#1
markcrew Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2019 Location: Boise, Idaho USA Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Help recovering Calibre after hardware failure Hello! I've been using Calibre for several years to format eBooks for my Amazon Kindles, and have over 1200 books in my Calibre library. Last month, I had a major hardware failure on my PC (Dell Alienware laptop) that I was unable to get fixed. It won't boot, & the beep code points to a problem in the video or display systems, which are all Dell-proprietary. I bought the laptop in 2014, and Dell Support told me that the system is considered to be at end-of-life at this point, and they no longer offer hardware support, replacement parts, etc. for it. Grrr! I built a new Windows 10 desktop system to replace the laptop (all standard parts from major vendors, no more proprietary stuff for me). At this point I'm reloading apps & recovering data. I installed Calibre from scratch on the new box, and got my Library rebuilt. My problem is that I'm now realizing how much work I have to do to recreate my previous Calibre environment - years of evolving configuration, templates, custom tweaks, etc. In many cases, as I convert books now I recognize that I'm not getting the same formatting that I did on my old system, but I don't remember how I had tweaked my old config to get what I wanted. My question is this: I have backups of my old system from shortly before the failure available on my NAS. Are there files or directories I can restore to the new system to get me back to my old config without screwing up the new install? Or if replacing files with old copies isn't a good idea, are there files I can review to find old config that I can re-implement in the new system? Or does the stuff I'm looking for reside in the Windows Registry? I'm very comfortable with the Registry & RegEdit (35+ yrs as a working Software Engineer). I can restore a copy of the old registry on a virtual system & start digging if someone can point me in the right direction. Any guidance you can give me in recovering my Calibre environment is greatly appreciated. I don't think I can reconstruct it all from scratch in any reasonable amount of time by hand, and I'm looking for a better way to go about it. Thanks, Mark Crew Boise, Idaho

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01-15-2022, 10:33 PM	#2
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,552 Karma: 26954694 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	There is nothing in the Windows Registry of interest to the calibre user - i.e. preference settings ettc. What you want is in the configuration folder, on Windows that's normally kept at %APPDATA%\calibre. If your NAS has accessible backup of your old Users folder you can simply copy what's in it to to the equivalent folder on your new rig. BR

01-16-2022, 10:07 PM	#3
rwmcafee Connoisseur Posts: 53 Karma: 2024 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: none	Just a thought. Can you physically access the hard drive, SSD, M2 storage device? If so, remove the storage device and install it in your new computer as another drive and access it. You can also install the device in an USB external enclosure and attach it that way. I've done this with previous hard drives from laptops. Works great. Ron