If I upgraded on occasion as a multiple user, it was strictly inadvertent. I checked the Windows Registry on both my computers, and they show my current installation as single user. Before going the pmrestarch route, I decided to try deleting the Admin and Old folders as well as main.pmm and main.pmi, and eliminating the .1 from main.1.pmm and main.1.pmm. This appears to have fixed the problem. I can now see all the e-mails that were supposed to be in my main mail folder. Everything I deleted is backed up, should unexpected problems show up in the future as a result of this fix.

 Thanks again to everyone who responded.

 Terry

I am using Pegasus 4.63 build 325 on both a Win XP desktop and a Win 7 laptop.

According to the Main folder directory, my Main folder contains no messages more recent than 2011. However, I can locate and open more recent messages with a text search, so they obviously still exist. Checking the Main folder for consistency and reindexing it did not make them visible in the directory.

Examining the PMail/Mail folder on both computers, I see that I have a 10MB mail.pmm file and a 32MB mail.1.pmm file. Are my hidden messages somewhere in the 22MB discrepancy between the two? Is there a way to make the full contents of my Main folder visible in Pegasus?

Thank you,

Terry

In Pegasus Mail menu, choose Tools/Basic settings. You will see the name of your "default main folder".  In your standard folder list, you should see both Mail and Mail.1 folders. selecting either one should show its content.  Presuming that your default main folder is Mail, you would need to copy the content of your Mail.1 folder to the Mail folder. Once the content is safely in the Mail folder, I would rename Mail.1 to something else to save further confusion.

It looks like someone tried to do a file copy in Windows Explorer, and it added the dot-one to avoid overwriting the original file.

 HTH

Martin 

Use extra caution and check spelling carefully. Main is the name of the default folder at install and is one of the already created messages folders created by installer. The actual messages folder would be named main.pmm and main.pmi for the index. That is for display purposes and visual aid. Actual use and identification is base on the unique ID of the folder. In folder manager windows right click on the folder name and you will see the path and name as well as the unique ID of the messages folder.

The name mail is a default folder (directory) name which may have messages folders there only if a single user install. A multi user install would have user name for each as subdirectory under /mail/<user> and each with a main.pmm. 

Thank you to both Martin and Jerry for responding.

 In the folder manager, there is only a Main folder, no Main.1 folder. The main folder is in the default location, PMail\Mail.

I tried renaming the Main files Mainold.pmm and Mainold.pmi and the corresponding Main.1 files as just Main.pmm and Main.pmi, but the folder contents were the same and incomplete, despite the large difference in size between the two .pmm files. Even after restarting Windows and PMail. That was unexpected. What is in all those extra megabytes?

 Terry

A .pmm file is the data half of the message folder file pair. It is text based and could be opened for inspection in something like Notepad and the plain text portion of the messages and all the message header portion can be read in Notepad. Much of the rest of the content is encoded content that has to be converted for display. A .pmi file is the index portion of the file pair for a message folder.

Please show us the content of the Help, About, Info button and that display. It will show executable location and home and new mail locations on drive. Where are any and all .pmm files located at this time? Are they in multiple locations?

All the .pmm files are in C:\PMail\Mail, except that there are very small (a few KB, with dates going back to 2003 and 2010) ones in C:\PMail\Mail\Admin,  C:\Pmail\Mail\Old, and C:\PMail\Programs\Defaults.

The contents of the Help, About, Info box follow below.

 Thank you,

Terry

Pegasus Mail for Microsoft Windows
Copyright (C) 1992-2011, David Harris, all rights reserved
Electronic mail to support@pmail.gen.nz.

WinPMail version: Version 4.63 (Win32), Dec 22 2011, build ID 325
Language resources: Standard UK English resource set
Extension Manager version: 1.14
Operating mode: Standalone
User name and ID: Single-user mode, 0
Windows version: 6.1
Windows flag word: 0
WINPMAIL.EXE directory: C:\PMAIL\Programs
Home mailbox location: C:\PMAIL\MAIL
New mailbox location: C:\PMAIL\MAIL
TMP environment variable: C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Temp
TEMP environment variable: C:\Users\Terry\AppData\Local\Temp
LAN-based SMTP support: N, N, N
NetWare MHS support: N, N, N
Built-in TCP/IP support: Enabled
  - WINSOCK version: (Not loaded)
  - WINSOCK path: C:\Windows\system32\WSOCK32.DLL
Commandline: -roam -A
Active -Z options: 32768
PMR variable: (None)
PML variable: (None)
MAI variable: (None)
NB variable: (None)
Autofiltering folders: 0 (0 active, 0 inactive)
Last new mail count: 392
Message size soft limit: 0 bytes
Message size hard limit: 0 bytes
Attachment size soft limit: 0 bytes
Attachment size hard limit: 0 bytes

You have a mixed install, some old and some new and part single user mode and part multi user mode. You have messages in three different locations and program only can access one at at time initially and two would require use of -I <user> as part of command line starting winpm-32 while the othe (single user mode) would not.

Next step should be to run  PCONFIG and see what is really set at this moment as path to new and home mail box locations. If your system is 32bit OS version then you can run PCONFIG easily.  If your system is 64 bit OS  you will need to use DosBox application in order to run the 16bit PCONFIG. Pconfig will show for sure whether single user or multi user mode at present time. It should show the way you selected in the v4.63 installer when you ran it. You may have made different selection with older install on different machine.

You may also use the Add mailbox to list function to try to view and use the messages in other locations however there is a problem if trying to use folders of same name. A new mail folder will be displayed for each Added mailbox and that location may or may not contain *.cnm new mail message files. The way you or something renamed message folder names will not work in Pegasus Mail. The dot will mess things up as program is looking for 8 character name followed by .pmm.

According to pconfig, the path to both Home and New mailboxes is c:\Pmail\Mail. Would I be best off uninstalling Pmail and doing a fresh installation of 4.63, then restoring my folders from a backup? If I were to do this, would I conceivably be able to restore the complete main folder by renaming the larger main.1.pmm  and .pmi to main.pmm and .pmi?

 Thank you,

Terry

According to what you wrote earlier you have *.pmm files in three locations.  All the .pmm files are in C:\PMail\Mail, except that there are very

small (a few KB, with dates going back to 2003 and 2010) ones in

C:\PMail\Mail\Admin,  C:\Pmail\Mail\Old  There may or may not also be some *.cnm  new mail files in those same locations.

You also mention  a renamed main.1.pmm file and  index and that filename could not possibly work and is not a valid MSDos file name. You would have to rename to something like 1Main.pmm and 1Main.pmi if there is any chance to make the files work.

The ultimate objective would be to get all the *.pmm files with *.pmi into the c:\pmail\mail location. That assume you want to have only one user on system. You, however, show two other users in the past or  recent  present, c:\pmail\mail\Admin and C:\pmail\mail\Old and each may have folder pairs and maybe also *.cnm files in those locations. In order to have used those locations you would have had to run winpm-32 with -I Admin or -I Old as part of command line or icon target line. You could however access the information by using Add mailbox to list function from the Folders menu which is dynamic and comes and goes only when Folders manager window is in the foreground.

An alternative plan would be to use pmrestarch program to turn all the contents of the old alternate *.pmm files into *.cnm new mail messages again in winpm-32.

PMRestArch - Pegasus Mail Restore Mail Folder Archives:
http://www.lexacorp.com.pg  Downloads tab then Pegasus Mail
http://www.lexacorp.com.pg/software/PMRestArch.zip

Usage:
PMRestArch SourceDir DestinationDir

Description:
Pegasus Mail cannot display two mail folders with the same internal ID
even if they are in separate mailboxes. Mail folders also have to be
Read-Write.
      
This causes problems when trying to view mail folders which have been
archived by copying them to backup media.

This utility:

1.  Copies all .PMM and .PMI files in the source directory to
    the destination directory and renames them as BAKxxxxx.PMM
    and BAKxxxx.PMI.

2.  Ensures that the resulting file is Read/Write.

3.  Creates a different internal unique ID for each file.

Once you have run this program to restore archived folders to a
directory you can attach that directory using the Pegasus Mail 'Add
mailbox to list' option and access the archived folders in this new
mailbox.

 

Reinstalling seldom ever fixes anything. Any  improper settings or data remain and are not removed by installer. The only way is to do new clean full install. That means the machine and drive have no Pegasus Mail information or files on the drive and the MSWindows registry has no record of any install of winpm-32 and also the cache or recently used exe and dll files has been flushed. To achieve all that on a win7 machine is nearly impossible.

The only way I have ever accomplished it is to grab up all the c:\pmail and below into a compressed archive file like .zip or .7z and then delete all the original existing files and then to restart the MSWindows system also before installing the v4.63 installer archive exe file. Then restore only new mail messages and messages folders and address book but no files containing any  paths or settings or  preferences. No .cfg file, no pmail.ini or anything else like that. That means setting every option and every internet option again with all tabs below and and then also resizing all  windows and positioning them and making shure all is saved. The first part of installer setup must be read and set correctly also and you must decide to have one user on system only or multiple users. Apparently you have. or did have both ways selected with different installs.

All files in and  under c:\pmail must be valid MSDos 8.3 names and all must be readable and writeable also.