Storing eBooks.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Yes, off-site is an HDD (lasts longer powered down than SSD/Flash)

Of course, there's the risk that it won't spin up if you leave it off for too long. Digital storage is so finicky.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Of course, there's the risk that it won't spin up if you leave it off for too long. Digital storage is so finicky.

The LOCKSS project ("Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe") at Stanford takes the always online, geographically distributed approach. It is aimed at libraries and maintains integrity by comparing checksums across all copies and automatically repairing failed copies.

I stumbled on it around 10 years ago and was intrigued, but never really dug into it or kept up with it.

https://www.lockss.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOCKSS

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Of course, there's the risk that it won't spin up if you leave it off for too long. Digital storage is so finicky.

I've spun up drives unused for 25 years. Less likely than fade on Flash/SSD, especially higher 3D levels. On Sata there is usually SMART. Any important back up should be on known good media and read to check.
It's loads of on/off cycles that can cause failure to spin up.

[Aleron Ives]

There's no such thing as "known good" media, as any storage device can fail in the future, and testing to see if it works today is no guarantee that it will still work tomorrow. You can only hedge your bets by storing multiple copies in the hope that they won't all fail at once.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BrickyBrian

Many thanks for the above. As it is I have recently started to lose patience with Amazon so I don't think I will be buying eBooks from them again.

Not all eBooks have DRM. But, even ePub has DRM and if you stop buying from Amazon, you'll still want to remove the DRM from your eBooks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Apache

If you read Science Fiction look at Baen Books. All of their books are DRM free and available in multiple formats.
Apache

Tor eBooks also have no DRM.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've spun up drives unused for 25 years. Less likely than fade on Flash/SSD, especially higher 3D levels. On Sata there is usually SMART. Any important back up should be on known good media and read to check.
It's loads of on/off cycles that can cause failure to spin up.

Google has a 13 page paper Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population (easy to find with a web search. Among the conclusions:

Our results confirm the findings of previous smaller
population studies that suggest that some of the SMART
parameters are well-correlated with higher failure prob-
abilities. We find, for example, that after their first scan
error, drives are 39 times more likely to fail within 60
days than drives with no such errors. First errors in re-
allocations, offline reallocations, and probational counts
are also strongly correlated to higher failure probabil-
ities. Despite those strong correlations, we find that
failure prediction models based on SMART parameters
alone are likely to be severely limited in their prediction
accuracy, given that a large fraction of our failed drives
have shown no SMART error signals whatsoever.

(Emphasis mine.)

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Google has a 13 page paper Failure Trends in a Large Disk Drive Population (easy to find with a web search. Among the conclusions:

(Emphasis mine.)

There's also sudden catastrophes. My external drive had been fine until I accidentally bumped it while it was running. Head crash!

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've spun up drives unused for 25 years.
It's loads of on/off cycles that can cause failure to spin up.

There is also bearing lubrication loss, head(s) welding to platter, and humidity degrading electronics. An example of a drive spinning up and working after 25 years of storage is no indication that this is typical. Although it is likely rare, I have no doubt that there has been a drive that was used for backup out of the box, stored a few weeks, then powered on and promptly died from infant mortality.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There's also sudden catastrophes. My external drive had been fine until I accidentally bumped it while it was running. Head crash!

There are many ways for drives to die without warning (or time to address a warning). I was only addressing the concept of SMART as some kind of insurance policy.

[Tarana]

I should have added a couple of things when I posted. For backup, I do recommend doing both cloud and hard drive as well as your computer and flash drive. Excessive? How much did you pay for all your ebooks? No different from family photos. Google provides free space - more than enough for most people's ebooks and the most important of your photos.

Second, you can forward books into your account on Amazon (send-to-kindle). However, you lose the font options available having azw3 format. I still do send such books to my sister, but she doesn't 'keep' books once read.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I should have added a couple of things when I posted. For backup, I do recommend doing both cloud and hard drive as well as your computer and flash drive.

Yes. I have Dropbox for my off-site backup. The cloud is the only way for me to keep an off-site backup, because there's no physical place I visit often enough for the back-up to be up to date. A back-up which is half a year out of date would be useless to me.

[BrickyBrian]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I don't think it is really possible to move things between different vendor stores. There might be one out there, but I have not seen it.

You might look into Calibre. It is a device agnostic e-book storage and organizing tool that can store all of your books on your computer. It can also convert the formats from one e-book type to another.

The MR Calibre forum is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/fo...play.php?f=166

I have an icon on my desktop now with the name above. I attempted to add a snip of the icon with no success. I've opened the icon but don't have the faintest idea on how to use it such as looking for eBook's such as the one Im interested in using, "Wingate Pasha." I attempted to access the Calibre user Forum with no success.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by BrickyBrian

I have an icon on my desktop now with the name above. I attempted to add a snip of the icon with no success. I've opened the icon but don't have the faintest idea on how to use it such as looking for eBook's such as the one Im interested in using, "Wingate Pasha." I attempted to access the Calibre user Forum with no success.

Start here, for example:
https://calibre-ebook.com/demo#tour

As to how to get an ebook to Calibre - first, you'd have to buy it from an ebook store. Amazon, Kobo, Ebooks.com, for example. Then you'll have to download the file from the store you bought it from. How exactly, depends on which store you used. If the book has DRM, you'll need to install the deDRM plugin for Calibre (can be downloaded here: https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools). What you do after that depends on the book format and where you bought it. Amazon ebooks are handled differently than Kobo books and other epubs.

If the book has no DRM, then use the Add Books button on the Calibre toolbar, navigate to where you downloaded the file and select it, and it'll be added to you Calibre library.

[Quoth]

Or download from gutenberg.org
I have separate folders for each source of ebook and then in Calibre "Add" the copy.
If you have the deDrm plugin from Git NoDrm 9or others) then "Add" also works with books with DRM (only downloaded, not copied from a device).

Calibre is pointless for Library ebooks. They need used directly. You don't ever own them. Kindle Unlimited is a Pay Library.

Backup the originals and the library.

[BrickyBrian]

I see the need to add to my list of questions and request for advice.

I have what I refer to as a Kindle eBook store and a Kobo eBook store.
Firstly is, "Book store" the correct term to use?

Secondly. Is it possible to move. eBooks from a Kindle Book store to a Kobo book store and vice versa?

Thirdly. Is there a Book store available where one may store every type of eBook?

1. Dazrin “I don't think it is really possible to move things between different vendor stores”.
If that’s the case I will dump my existing libraries and look for replacements using Calibre, However, having looked at obtaining eBook, The Easter Rising. Michael Foy from Calibre they offerd a large number of different suppliers. I’m looking for one that will offer me flexibility such as no DRM.

2. Sirtel. “It's possible to store everything in Calibre”. That’s what I’m looking for.

3. JSWolf. “You'll need Calibre 6 and the DeDRM p10.0.3 lugin that can be found at https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools
Thanks for that advice.
4. crossi. There are restrictions used by Amazon that puts them outside of my customer base. I now need to find a program to remove DRM. Why do you say, “A nice library program”?
5. Tarana. Thanks for the backing up advice. I see that I will have to learn about it.