Sounds perfect, thank you!

I use this command string to open PM 4.6 from external drive: x:/pmail/winpm-32.exe -a -roam -I admin

First I get a msg saying MAILBOX IS LOCKED blahblah, EXIT or CONTINUE. As I'm offline and the only one connected to that drive, no one else can possibly be accessing the mailbox. But just to be sure, I unplugged the drive, turned it off and then on, and restarted my computer. Same deas. So I hit CONTINUE.

Next up, AUTOSAVED MESSAGES FOUND, then OPEN or CONTINUE. I've been getting this msg for a year or more. But this time when I hit CONTINUE, I get the dreaded (NOT RESPONDING) msg. I can see some of the mailboxes in the background. Other times I can see a screen full of them. But no matter how many times I repeat this process, the program never fully opens.

At bottom left it says APPLYING MAIL FILTERING RULES...

If I just leave it and don't click CONTINUE or OPEN, nothing happens. It just hangs. 26GB left on the external drive, though I do have a massive number of emails going back probably 15 years.

Everything else works normally; only Pegasus freezes.

Have already checked hang, freeze, and crash threads mentioned here: http://community.pmail.com/forums/thread/31478.aspx

Kinda need access to keep making a living...

Thanks for any help!

Windows 8.1 (Also tried using Windows 10 computer; same thing)
PM 4.6

2 things come to mind

1) With Pegasus closed, move all the *.cnm files to a seperate Dir then reopen Pegasus, move a few back at a time and "Read New Mail" each time, unless/until you hit problem

2) Update to 4.73

Wow, did THAT work! Thank you!

I went the other way though--removed the most-recently modified CNM file first, because the problem just started today.

So, one other question: is there anything I need in that moved CNM file? Could it contain recent emails? (To my knowledge, no messages were downloaded during the Big Freeze, because the program never fully started.)

And can I safely update without that CNM file (47kb)?

Happy New Year!

A .CNM file is a new message file.  Sometimes one arrives that is corrupted/malformed which causes Pegasus Mail to hang when it tries to read it into the new mail folder list.  You can view it's contents with a text editor to determine whether it is of value.

Thanks!

Already copied the entire PMAIL directory. But in the event something fatal happens to the running copy--

Can you tell me which specific files/folders/file types contain email messages, identity info (POP/SMTP/un & pw info) and program settings--things I can copy/import into a freshly-installed PM?

Those are questions that would require more information than is practical to post here.  These resources will help. 

Guide to Pegasus Mail file names and extensions: 

http://www.vandenbogaerde.net/pegasusmail/pk_frame.html

Guide for files to copy to a new system:

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