Fair point.  I seldom need to migrate when anything in my configuration will be changing -- always on Drive D, away from the OS -- but when I do, I've been handling that manually as well. 

Not for everyone to do it that way, though.  - CKM

I am used to the old pconfig.exe where, for a stand-alone configuration, I specified the Home mailbox and New mailbox. In my case, where pconfig.exe is in F:\PMAIL, these would be G:\PMailLeny and G:\PMAIL\MAIL respectively. As I understand it, Pegasus folders would be in G:\PMailLeny and incoming mail would be in G:\PMAIL\MAIL.

The terminology in 4.72's pconfig.exe is different: it has Configuration directory and Home mailbox root directory. Which path would I put in which input box?

 I am loading software into a new PC, the old one having died. I do have backups of  G:\PMailLeny and G:\PMAIL\MAIL. I was running v. 4.21c.

Perhaps because there is only one user, there is no PMAIL.USR file. The new config.exe does mention this as being in the directory specified as Home mailbox directory, but because I don't have such a file, the note in the pconfig.exe window does not help.

 ...chris

I think the Home mailbox directly setting in the old pconfig was redundant because it is configurable from within Pegasus Mail.  So when using pconfig32 I think you would do the following based on your old settings...

• The Configuration directory would be F:\PMAIL
• The Home mailbox root directory would be G:\PMAIL\MAIL\~8
  

Use the Mailbox location setting inside of Pegasus Mail to specify the Home mailbox directory.  Tools > Options > General Settings > Mailbox location.

Note the "~8" in the Home mailbox root directory path.  The help screen shows all of the options for this specification.  The default is ~8 which works as long as none of the mailbox directories have a name longer than 8 characters which is assume isn't the case for you since you mentioned single user.  For anyone else who may be reading this, ~N is what you should use when you have any long mailbox directory names (>8 characters).

Thank you, Brian, for the clarification.

...chris

I note that in 4.72, the .exe files are in F:\PMAIL\Programs. In earlier versions, they were in F:\PMAIL. So I am expecting that the Configuration directory will be F:\PMAIL\Programs. I see, from the note in the dialog,  that leaving Configuration directory blank will pick up the correct path.

That dialog leaves mean wondering what "current directory" means.  I assume it is the one from which you executed PCONFIG32.EXE but I wonder if that is only pertinent if you are executing it from a command window and have navigated to it.  I don't know if "current directory" applies when double clicking an executable from within a file explorer.  I would like to know though.

There is no harm in leaving it blank and seeing what happens.  You can always run it again and browse to F:\PMAIL\PROGRAMS.

FWIW, the result of running PCONFIG

That dialog leaves mean wondering what "current directory" means.  I assume it is the one from which you executed PCONFIG32.EXE but I wonder if that is only pertinent if you are executing it from a command window and have navigated to it.  I don't know if "current directory" applies when double clicking an executable from within a file explorer.  I would like to know though.

There is no harm in leaving it blank and seeing what happens.  You can always run it again and browse to F:\PMAIL\PROGRAMS.

FWIW, the result of running PCONFIG is the updating of the PMAIL.CFG file.  This file is one of the few that you shouldn't edit with a text editor but you can view it with one to see the paths.  Just be careful not to make any changes.

By the way, is there an "official" (or at least documented and easy) way to just move the whole mailbox tree from one drive to another?

I have all my mailboxes under C:\CORRADO\MAIL\ and, due to lack of drive space, I need to move them all to drive D:, let's say for simplicity under path D:\MAIL\ but this is not a strong constraint.

In the past it just was a matter of simply modifiying a couple of configuration files, but nowadays it seems to me quite impossible to do that by hand because of the many pieces of configuration info scattered among several different files and the Windows registry.

An official how-to, or better a specific tool to automate the task, would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

  Corrado

First, I good news: Pegasus is now running AOK on the new PC (Petra), with Inbox, folders and address books as they were at the last backup on the crashed PC (Katie). It has taken time (and a bit of experimentation).

Now for some findings that may be helpful to others.

I started from Han van den Bogaede's  excellent A guide to Pegasus Mail filenames and file-extensions. I offer my quickie summary as a separate thread, Where files live in Pegasus.

The next step was to install Pegasus.

    I downloaded w32_472.exe from the Pegasus website to H:\DL\Pegasus 4_72.
•        I did Win+R w32_472.exe to run it. I accepted Security risk. Welcome showed.
    •    I clicked on Next. New installation details showed.
    •    I changed the destination from C:\PMAIL to F:\PMAIL
    •    I clicked on Next.
    •    I accepted:
        •    Create start menu/shortcuts for Pegasus Mail
        •    Enable Pegasus Mail for “mailto:”
        •    Create Pegasus Mail icon on the Desktop
    •    I unchecked:
        •    Pre-configure a user mailbox (Creates a mail directory and initial user called Admin).
        •    Roaming mode – good for running from USB stick. Doesn’t use a drive letter, but both program and mail box(es) have to be on same drive
    •    I clicked on Next. Ready to install showed.
    •    I clicked on Finish. A progress bar showed, then Setup has completed successfully.
    •    I ran Pegasus, and cancelled the Internet setup.
    •    I clicked on Exit.
 

Creating pmail.cfg by running pconfig.exe

I ran F:\PMAIL\Programs\pconfig32.exe . Configuration directory showed.
•        In Configuration directory I entered nothing.
    •    I clicked on Next. Home mailbox directory showed. There is a ? button to the right of the input box (which I didn't see initially). For others who missed it, clicking on it showed:

Some fields allow you to use ‘substitutions’ or special character sequences starting with tilde (~) that are replaced with data by Pegasus Mail at runtime. The commonly-used substitutions are:
~D    A single random four-digit number, used to build filenames
~A    The directory where Pegasus is installed
~H    The current Pegaus Mail user’s home mailbox directory
~N    The ASCII username of the current user
~8    The first 8 characters of the current user’s username
~R    The address to which replies to a message should be sent
~P    The personal name of the current user, in its raw form
~O    The personal name of the current user, 8-bit encoded
~%...    A special form that inserts a Windows environment variable
~L...    A special form that creates an address that can be replaced by an address synonym if the user has one defined
~~    Inserts a single tilde character (~) into the string
Click on any button to insert that substitution into the field, or click Close

•       I entered G:\PMAIL\MAIL in Home mailbox directory
•        I clicked on Save and Exit. This created PMAIL.CFG in F:\PMAIL\Programs.

I examined this pmail.cfg in TextPad. It showed G:\PMAIL\MAIL twice. This was unexpected, based on the note in the first pconfig32 window.

The backup of  the crashed PC (Katie, 4.21c) showed G:\PMAIL\MAIL and G:\PmailLeny. (The paths on the hard drive on Petra are the same as they were on Katie.)

On my PC, Molly, examining pmail.cfg showed H:\PMAIL\MAIL and H:\PMailChris.

So the entry in the first input box,Configuration directory, appears to be irrelevant for a single user.

Restoring meta-data and data

I created G:\PMAIL\MAIL and  G:\PmailLeny

I copied all files from the backups of these directories (of Katie)  to  them.

Running Pegasus

Katie, my crashed "friend", had been set to download emails automatically when she crashed. My wife and I share an email address.

•    Running Pegasus for the first time
    •    I disconnected Petra from the LAN.
    •    I ran Pegasus. Welcome ... showed with Pegasus has detected that you have previously used an older version of Pegasus mail on this mailbox.
    •    I clicked on OK. Folders looked normal, as did Inbox and address books.
    •    In Tools > Internet Options > Receiving (POP3) GMail was enabled. I disabled it.
    •    I connected Petra to the LAN.

I hope this long post may help others who need to recover from a crashed PC. Backups saved my wife (and me!).

Comments, etc. are most welcome. 

 ...chris

Corrado,

There isn't an "official" way because of the variety of Pegasus Mail installs and configurations that might exist (default location, single user; default location, multi-user; remote drive install, single or multi; locations for Home and New mailbox directories being same or different;...).  If I were to create an "official" way it would be to do a clean install and then move mailbox data from old mailbox directories to new one.  There is a white paper in the downloads section of this site that was created to assist with this. 

http://community.pmail.com/files/folders/whitepapers/entry41852.aspx

Be advised that this was created before pconfig32.exe was available.  Before pconfig32.exe was pconfig.exe which required a DOS emulator to run on most newer PC's.  The method detailed by c.haslam uses pconfig32 to change the existing paths in the configuration files.

I believe the clean install/move data method is best because you are using fresh configuration files.  There is no chance of problems entries being carried over from a previous install,  It's not necessarily the easiest however.  'Easy" depends on the type of install which is why the first response to the question of how to go about doing it is often a request for more information.

I do realize that forum participants are in search of a stable yet flexible tool-based protocol for migrating PMail installations to hither and yon. 

I've been a user since about 1990.  On several occasions I've wanted / needed to migrate an installation to another location.  Quite some years ago I started just copying the whole tree to the new location, then going through the configuration files and editing the paths from old to new.  

Text files are straightforward; compiled binary files -- PMAIL.CFG, e.g. -- adjust through a hex editor.  Single or multiple users. 

It may not be for everyone, but it really doesn't take that long, either.  I haven't found the OS registry entries to be of any consequence at all.  I have yet to have a problem with this approach.  

- Christopher Muñoz

>> In the past it just was a matter of simply modifiying a couple of configuration files, but nowadays it seems to me quite impossible to do that by hand because of the many pieces of configuration info scattered among several different files and the Windows registry.

It should be made clear that registry entries are required in order to set Pegasus Mail as the default mail program and to associate Pegasus Mail with the Mailto protocol so at some point in the migration process the installer should be run.