The Best of Sherlock Holmes

How to Copy the e-Sherlock Holmes Journal to your Hard Disk

Copying Instructions and Tips

These instructions are intended only for you to make a backup/working copy of the e-SHJ. You should only copy the files from these compact discs if you already own an original of the e-SHJ CD-ROM set. Please do not steal/pirate this copyrighted material. It is available for sale at the Sherlock Holmes Society of London website and through the CD publisher George Vanderburgh at george.vanderburgh@gmail.com.

It took me about 10 minutes to copy everything using a 500 MHz Pentium III with 128 MB RAM and Windows 98SE.

1. Check how much free space is available on your hard disk.

Using Windows 98, double-click on My Computer and then right-click on your hard disk. Choose Properties, and the Properties dialog will show you how much free space is available. Note that 1 GB = 1 Gigabyte which is roughly 1000 Megabytes.

You can run into various system problems if your hard disk becomes very full, so I would not recommend copying the e-SHJ to your hard disk if you have less than 1 Gigabyte (1000 Megabytes) of free space and it would be better if you had at least 2 Gigabytes of free space.

Assuming you already have Acrobat Reader installed, you will need approximately 530 Megabytes for Disc 1. If you decide to copy Disc 2, you'll need approximately 300 Megabytes for it (but some of the files are duplicates and will be deleted).

The following assumes you have a hard disk named "C:" so substitute your disk's name if it is different.

2. Create a new folder/directory on your hard disk.

This folder will contain all your e-SHJ files.

Hot Tip: Put this folder in a location that is not subject to backup. You don't want to waste time backing up the e-SHJ files since you already have them on CD.

Hot Tip: Don't put this folder in My Documents. I often use the "Find Files or Folders" search utility to locate a document that I created. The utility will search through all subfolders. By putting the e-SHJ files somewhere else, the utility will not waste time searching through these files when I have it search all of "My Documents."

Hot Tip: If you also have the Baker Street Journal files on your hard disk, don't use the same folder for both the e-SHJ and the BSJ files. It might work, but it is simpler and safer to use separate folders.

I suggest creating the following: C:\xSHJcd

3. Copy the contents of e-SHJ CD Disc 1 into your new hard disk folder.

Hot Tip: For fastest performance, restart your PC (Start menu > Shut Down > Restart) before starting the copying process.

Hot Tip: Do not run any other programs or try copying from another drive at the same time. You'll get the best performance and have the lowest risk of problems if the only thing your PC is doing is copying files from a single CD drive onto your hard disk.

Don't copy the CD drive letter. Copy the contents of the CD.

I opened one window showing the contents of C:\xSHJcd (empty). I opened a second window showing the contents of my Disc 1 CD (lots of files including ones with names starting "e-SHJ-01" or "e-SHJ-02" and a folder named "e-SHJ Index"). I then selected all the contents of the CD (Edit > Select-All or Ctrl-A). I then did a copy/paste into the hard disk folder C:\xSHJcd (I actually used a right-click, drag to the window, and selected Copy Here).

4. Copy the contents of e-SHJ Disc 2 into your new hard disk folder (optional)

The files on Disc 2 are not essential for typical use of the e-SHJ. However, if you have the free space, I suggest copying these files into your new e-SHJ hard disk folder.

The most useful files to copy (155 Megabytes) include:

e-SHSL Christmas Cards (1953-2002).pdf
e-SHSL Dinner Menus (1953-2002).pdf
e-SHSL Membership Lists (1952-2002).pdf

While far less relevant, the following might be copied:

V1-2 with Hidden Texts (folder and all contents, 92 Megabytes)
Original Indexes (folder and all contents, 6 Megabytes)

The Hidden Texts folder includes alternative versions of the first eight issues of the SHJ. These alternative versions replicate the exact appearance of these issues and may provide slightly improved printouts. The content of these issues is better found using the primary version of these issues from Disc 1 of the e-SHJ. The Original Indexes folder provides the indexes originally issued with the printed SHJ. However, they are superseded by the comprehensive index compiled by Geraldine Beare and included as part of the "2 Start e-SHJ with Index.pdf" file on Disc 1.

You DO NOT need to copy any of the other files or folders on Disc 2. Most are duplicates of files from Disc 1. The "Acrobat" folder contains the Acrobat Reader installer program, which you don't need if you have already installed Acrobat Reader.

5. Clean up.

Hot Tip: After such extensive copying, it's a good idea to re-initialize Windows. Eject and remove your last e-SHJ CD. Now restart your PC (Start menu > Shut Down > Restart). This will clear up any memory leak effects.

6. The results.

If you copied all the above items, you will have the following in your new e-SHJ folder on your hard disk:

"Home page" and comprehensive index (2 Start e-SHJ with Index.pdf)
All the SHJ issues in PDF files, including 3 special supplements
Related material in PDF files for Christmas Cards, Dinner Menus, and Membership List
A folder with Hidden Text versions of some issues
A folder with the original SHJ printed indexes
An Index folder (with many sub-items), and top-level file "e-SHJ Index.pdx", all of which provide the internal Acrobat catalog index (used for the Search / Query function in Acrobat, and not to be confused with Beare's "Index to the SHJ" found in the "2 Start e-SHJ with Index.pdf" file.

If you do a Select All, right-click, Properties:

144 files, 12 folders, 780 Megabytes

Note: Actual hard disk space used may vary slightly depending on the overall size of your hard disk.

7. Check if the correct Search Index is selected

Acrobat uses a catalog Search Index as part of its Search / Query capability. To use Search / Query with the e-SHJ on your hard disk, you need to make sure that the software is set to use the index file on your hard disk and that no other index files (e.g., for the BSJ) are currently selected. Often this happens automatically, but the following instructions are provided in case you have problems.

a) Open the e-SHJ home page by double-clicking on the "2 Start e-SHJ with Index.pdf" file. This will launch Acrobat Reader and will probably automatically select the e-SHJ Index file.

b) Use Edit > Search > Select Indexes to open the Index Selection dialog box. One or more indexes may be listed, but there should be one called "e-SHJ Index" shown with a checkmark in the checkbox.

If "e-SHJ Index" appears more than once, I suggest clicking on each one, removing it, closing the dialog box, and Quitting Acrobat Reader. If you still have the e-SHJ CD in your CD drive, remove. Now go back to step (a) above.

c) Click on the index name ("e-SHJ Index") not the checkbox. Click the Info button in the Index Selection dialog. An Index Information dialog will appear, and it should list a filename for the e-SHJ Index.pdx file. This filename should include a path (e.g., "C:\xSHJcd\") that indicates this file resides on your hard disk.

If the path is not on your hard disk, you need to remove this index, click the Add button, and navigate to the hard disk folder where you have the SHJ files (e.g., C:\xSHJcd). Select the "e-SHJ Index.pdx" file (not the Index folder) and click Open. This will select the proper index.

d) Be sure that the checkbox for the e-SHJ Index is checked, and that none of the other checkboxes are checked. (Having these other indexes active and available is usually not useful when doing searches focused on the SHJ.)

e) Click the OK button to save this new index setting

When I copied the files to my hard disk, the e-SHJ Search Index was automatically re-set to use the SHJ catalog index file on my hard disk when I first opened

Back to Tips on the Using the e-SHJ CD