Making A copy of my library to CD

[LadyLou]

Having had many computer problems of late I have become obsessive about backing up to various media.

I have only just started using Calibre to hopefully send my e-books to my Sony Touch.

I am a bit of a stickler for being organised and am spending alot of time and effort in organising my library. I want to 'back up' my library in seperate 'author' files onto a CD. When I used 'save to disc' and used burn, when I return to the library the files 'saved to disc' had disappeared from my library.

Also, although I have the titles etc. correctly capitalized etc in the library when I look for the files in the 'library' file as oppossed to the on screen library with Calibre open, they do not appear correctly and thus the files that are saved are not the same as those contained in Calibre.

I am sure this is a problem being caused by me not understanding Calibre, and other computing rules, but I would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Also, where is the Calibre database? Having made a mess up of my first couple of attempts organising the library, I uninstalled Calibre and my book files and then re-installed and I keep getting the message 'some of the titles you are importing are already in the database'

LL

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by LadyLou

When I used 'save to disc' and used burn, when I return to the library the files 'saved to disc' had disappeared from my library.

That shouldn't have happened. You may have a tag turned on so you don't see them. Alternatively, if they are tagged as news, there is an automatic delete when they are sent to your reader.

Also, although I have the titles etc. correctly capitalized etc in the library when I look for the files in the 'library' file as oppossed to the on screen library with Calibre open, they do not appear correctly and thus the files that are saved are not the same as those contained in Calibre.

Don't look at the files in your library. Pretend they aren't there. Use the screen and either save to disk or save to device. You control how they are named when they are saved out with those methods.

Also, where is the Calibre database?

Run the Welcome Wizard (arrow next to Preferences.) It will tell you where you put it.

I keep getting the message 'some of the titles you are importing are already in the database'

It probably means that you already have those titles in your database. Just type part of the name into the search and see what comes up.

Edit: BTW, on the naming issue, if you are on Windows, and capitalization is the only problem, then you may have tried to rename a file by changing only the capitalization. Since Windows doesn't differentiate capitals, your changes may not take. Usually that's not a problem, but if it bothers you, make some other change to the name beyond capitalization (add a letter) then the capitalization change will be made.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by LadyLou

Also, although I have the titles etc. correctly capitalized etc in the library when I look for the files in the 'library' file as oppossed to the on screen library with Calibre open, they do not appear correctly and thus the files that are saved are not the same as those contained in Calibre.

No worries here. When you use Save To disk Calibre saves a metadata file with each book. So, if you later import the book back in all that data should be restored.

That said, why not just burn your calibre database (folder with all your books and the metadata database) to a DVD once a month or so rather than "Save to Disk" and then burning that?

BOb

[theducks]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

No worries here. When you use Save To disk Calibre saves a metadata file with each book. So, if you later import the book back in all that data should be restored.

That said, why not just burn your calibre database (folder with all your books and the metadata database) to a DVD once a month or so rather than "Save to Disk" and then burning that?

BOb

Remember, if you restore the directory contents from a CD or DVD archive you need to change the properties back from read only to be writable.

[LadyLou]

Thank you all, I will try and follow your advice and hopefully get it sorted.

Great site and great product.

[kovidgoyal]

Note that if you're burning directly to DVD its better to zip up the library folder first and burn the zip file, that way you wont have to worry about permissions/file name mangling issues

[Pardoz]

As an alternative/addition to backing up to physical media, you could also set up a (free) Dropbox account (www.dropbox.com) - unless your ebook library is huge (> 2.5 gigs) the free account should do you just fine.

[mazzeltjes]

Nice prog for people with a g-mail account:

http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

GMail Drive is a Shell Namespace Extension that creates a virtual filesystem around your Google Mail account, allowing you to use Gmail as a storage medium.

GMail Drive creates a virtual filesystem on top of your Google Gmail account and enables you to save and retrieve files stored on your Gmail account directly from inside Windows Explorer. GMail Drive literally adds a new drive to your computer under the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag’n’drop files to.

[LadyLou]

This is great, thank you all so much for all the help.

OK so, I used the sony software to download the first few e-books that I had and found it totally useless, so I have now organized my fast expanding library in Calibre. The next step now is to get the library in Calibre onto the Sony Touch. The Calibre library contains the few files already on the Reader so obviously I don't want to duplicate. So how should I go about this please?

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by LadyLou

This is great, thank you all so much for all the help.

OK so, I used the sony software to download the first few e-books that I had and found it totally useless, so I have now organized my fast expanding library in Calibre. The next step now is to get the library in Calibre onto the Sony Touch. The Calibre library contains the few files already on the Reader so obviously I don't want to duplicate. So how should I go about this please?

Just don't send those books to the Sony... Calibre only sends the books that you have selected when you press "sent to device".

BOb