Every once in a while I try to save my library.bookpedia file to a backup folder. I say "try" because it almost never works. I have about 2,000 books in the bookpedia library, but I can't see how it should take more than ten minutes for the file to backup. Or it simply crashes. In addition, it sucks up so much energy while it's doing it that I can't switch to another application to work, and I'm stuck watching Bookpedia spin its wheels.
I'm on a new PowerBook G4 with 1.5gb memory, so really, isn't this odd? Anything to be done?
very slow backup
I'd suggest using a different method of backup. The .bookpedia file format is useful for emailing smaller files to friends or for exporting collections in XML format but to make a backup it would be better - and a lot faster/easier - to just make a copy of the Bookpedia data folder. That way you have a backup of the data as it is used by the program with images being separate files, something that the .bookpedia file doesn't have. By default the Bookpedia folder is located in ~Library/Application Support.
Another quick way of backing up your database is to use the 'Rebuild database' command under the Help menu. This cleans out your database, getting rid of any unused fields and entries which slow the program down and at the same time it creates a backup of your info.xml file, which is the Bookpedia data file. (Bookpedia actually does this automatically once a month but if you want to do it more often, use the 'Rebuild database' function.)
Another quick way of backing up your database is to use the 'Rebuild database' command under the Help menu. This cleans out your database, getting rid of any unused fields and entries which slow the program down and at the same time it creates a backup of your info.xml file, which is the Bookpedia data file. (Bookpedia actually does this automatically once a month but if you want to do it more often, use the 'Rebuild database' function.)
The slowdown that you were seeing with .bookpedia and a large number of books is that to translate the cover images into XML (a text format) takes a lot of processing, an image is a lot of text. The best solution to backup is what Nora mentioned to make a copy of folder in Application Support.
To be clear, the rebuild database is not really a backup. It does create a info.backup.xml file. But it does this because when optimizing any data it's good to make a backup of that file first. However this file, as well as the working file and all the cover images, remain in the same folders so if you lose the folder or the hard drive, you lose the information. This is why a copy of this folder to a separate hard drive is the best practice.
If you are a Backup 3 user (Comes free with dot mac) you can have Backup 3 do the backing up for you. Our programs have a quickpick which makes setting up a backup schedule for any of our programs as simple as checking a box. (If you install Backup 3 AFTER installing our program, you will have to run a rebuild database once to install the quickpick.) The advantage of Backup 3 over manually doing it, is that it remembers on a schedule to do it automatically. Also, although this might not be a benefit, depending on who you ask, it can do incremental backups, saving time and space, as the old cover images don't change often.
P.S. A power tip for serious users with many entries like yourself: after making a backup of the folder, run rebuild database again but hold down option while clicking on the Menu. This will remove unused cover images as part of the clean up, reducing the size of the data folder for future backups.
To be clear, the rebuild database is not really a backup. It does create a info.backup.xml file. But it does this because when optimizing any data it's good to make a backup of that file first. However this file, as well as the working file and all the cover images, remain in the same folders so if you lose the folder or the hard drive, you lose the information. This is why a copy of this folder to a separate hard drive is the best practice.
If you are a Backup 3 user (Comes free with dot mac) you can have Backup 3 do the backing up for you. Our programs have a quickpick which makes setting up a backup schedule for any of our programs as simple as checking a box. (If you install Backup 3 AFTER installing our program, you will have to run a rebuild database once to install the quickpick.) The advantage of Backup 3 over manually doing it, is that it remembers on a schedule to do it automatically. Also, although this might not be a benefit, depending on who you ask, it can do incremental backups, saving time and space, as the old cover images don't change often.
P.S. A power tip for serious users with many entries like yourself: after making a backup of the folder, run rebuild database again but hold down option while clicking on the Menu. This will remove unused cover images as part of the clean up, reducing the size of the data folder for future backups.