"Ken, have you ever used two monitors with the Pegasus Mail main window being on the second monitor, but that second monitor is not available now? If so, Pegasus Mail could be opening offscreen. To check this, open Task Manager, select the details tab, then look for any "winpm-32.exe" entries. It would be best to do this when you think all instances of Pegasus Mail are closed."

Brian, I have never used two monitors with Pegasus. I did as you suggested, and found no winpm-32.exe there.

I had to go to Spokane, WA (80 miles) yesterday with my wife to do some shopping to prepare her and our daughter for the wedding of our youngest son in August, and today, we must travel for Mass, so I will get back at this a bit today (Sunday), but more tomorrow.

I thank all of you for the help.

I am considering copying all the data files which are in my present C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user> to an external drive, deleting my present user from this computer, rebuilding my user, then copying only the data files from my backup copy. But I suspect that if I do that, Pegasus won't even see them.

Also, since Notepad will not "see" everything that is in certain Pegasus files, what do YOU use to view those? I used to use a specific program years ago to "see" the contents of such files, but haven't used it in years.

Ken Gordon W7EKB

OK. I have installed a hex-editor. It seems to be working well.

I have checked some of the files that were recommended here. All "appear" to be OK.

Ken Gordon W7EKB

IMO, the files that are not in plain text should not be messed with. Editing them to try to "fix" something isn't practical. One byte out of place will brick it.

Some thoughts on this...

1. When backing up Pegasus Mail I suggest backing up the entire C:\PMAIL directory so that you have entire installation which will include the .CFG file in \Programs, the user data in \MAIL and the mailbox directory(ies) in \MAIL.
2. Removing a Windows user and then creating a new on should not affect the Pegasus Mail installation unless you intend to reformat the drive and do a new Windows installation.
3. There is a white paper available on this sight that contains instructions on how to copy just backed-up mailbox data to a clean installation. That is a last ditch effort though. As you know, C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user> contains most of the configuration files. Problems with Pegasus Mail are usually associated with one of those files so if in your mind "restore" means copying the entire content of a mailbox directory to a new installation of Pegasus Mail, well, that rarely fixes a problem.

FWIW, I believe rebuilding HIERARCH.PM would be worthwhile before giving up on the current installation entirely.

Well, I do not have a backup of HEIRARCH.PM, so I tried your second method of rebuilding it, by saving it as HEIRARCH.SAV, then trying to fire up Peggy: got the same problem. Doing that appears to have no effect whatever.

I have only used HEXEDIT to LOOK at the files in question. I would never attempt to edit any of them. Using HEXEDIT to look at several files, ALL "looked" OK. There didn't appear to be anything in them that aroused my suspicions. :-(

It seems obvious that the "bad" file is none of those we have looked at so far, but there HAS TO BE something wrong with at least one file somewhere, and I am convinced is in my C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user> directory.

Rats!

I wonder if it might be a hidden file?

Ken Gordon W7EKB

BTW, can Peggy connect to a mailbox on another computer via the network?

Ken Gordon W7EKB

Well, it is "possible" that I found the corrupted file: POP84KIC.PM3. When attempting to copy it, Windoze labeled it as corrupted and wouldn't copy it.

Now....what to do with it?

Ken Gordon W7EKB

When a POP3 download is made, a record of the downloaded messages is stored in a .PM3. I have seen something go wrong with them that results in the download of all messages on the server but have never known one to cause a startup failure (crash) like you describe. The only way to identify which POP3 connection is associated with that .PM3 file is to open each POP?????.PND file with a text editor until you find the one containing that filename as the Memfile:. Taking the .PM3 out of the picture by renaming it will not cause any problem other than a download of all mail on the host server so you can clean out the host server inbox first, or try starting Pegasus Mail in offline mode by adding the -O command line option to its shortcut (that is an oh, not a zero).

Is there now a HIERARCH.PM file in C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user>? If so, does it contain a date/time stamp that corresponds with the startup attempt following the rename?

Sort of. You can add a mailbox to the Folder list. That mailbox can be a directory path to a mailbox directory on a network share. The path must be a drive letter path, not a UNC path. Once connected, it appears at the bottom of the Folder list as an additional mailbox. All of its mail data is visible. Configurations, address books, distributions lists, and the like are not accessible. The path must be a drive letter path, not a UNC path. This means the destination must be in a network share that has been assigned a drive letter. An option would be to copy the remote mailbox directory to a USB device, attach that to your PC, and then add the on it as an added mailbox. The process to add a mailbox to the folder list is as follows:

• Open the folder list.
• With it active, go to the Folders pulldown menu and select the first option (Add mailbox to list...)
• Select the Directory path radio button
• Enter the path to the directory
• Enter a name for the mailbox
• Click OK

To disconnect it, right click on it in the Folder list then select the disconnect option.

OK. Let's figure THIS one out:the corrupted file is POP84KIC.PM3. When I copied all files from C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user> to my attached storage HDD, that file was flagged by Windoze as corrupted and it was not moved.

When I go to C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user> and search for any file *.PM3, that file does not appear.

Yet if I then "Search" for that file, the system returns that it is in C:/PMAIL/MAIL/<my_user> and is dated the day my Peggy failed.

THAT says to me that it is so corrupted that it cannot even be seen under normal circumstances.

So, since using normal methods I cannot even find the file at all, what do I use to find it and delete the damned thing?

Ken Gordon W7EKB

I don't know of any reason associated with Pegasus Mail for this file not to be visible. Could you not manipulate (delete, rename, or move) the file while in the search results? Alternatively, manipulation using commands in a Terminal or Command window should work.