Thanks! Disk wiped and restoring stuff now.  PMail seems to have survived with data intact.

Today when I fired up PM I downloaded about 7 messages and tried to open one.  Nothing happened and eventually I got a 'not responding' error from Windows.  I'm running XP with all security packs.

First I closed the program, removed the Mailbox.lck file, and tried again.  Same thing.  Then I started going through the *.cnm files - those are the message files, aren't they?   - trying to find the offending message and get rid of just it.  After removing all the messages that came through today I could open the program.  But whenever I try to do anything in the program, nothing happens.  I don't even get an error message.  I can not read one of the messages still in New Mail from yesterday; if I click on it, nothing happens.  I can not create a new message; if I try the new message command or clicks (you guessed it!) nothing happens.  

There are two things I have succeeded in doing:  1)  Changing folders.  But I still can't read any messages in the different folders.  2) I changed my download options to leave messages on the server after download, so if I have to trash one I can go to the web server and look at it, instead of losing it completely.

First question:  Any ideas on how what's going on and how to fix it?

 Second:  Is there a way to read the e-mails I had to trash to get PMail to open at all?  Can I read them in a text editor?

 I'm considering downloading a fresh copy of the program and re-installing, but I'd rather not lose what folders and organization I've got set up already.

Thanks for any help

[quote user="Elaine T"]First question:  Any ideas on how what's going on and how to fix it?

 Second:  Is there a way to read the e-mails I had to trash to get PMail to open at all?  Can I read them in a text editor?

 I'm considering downloading a fresh copy of the program and re-installing, but I'd rather not lose what folders and organization I've got set up already.[/quote]

Check this post for other possible issues. And yes, CNM-files are simple text files, but your messages may be encoded so you can't read them unless you get tools for (quoted-printable and BASE64) decoding.

Well, I've got a clue from Minidump:  It complains PMail is running, when Task Manager doesn't show any such thing.  So maybe it isn't shutting down all processes.  Although I shut down, ran chkdsk /f and rebooted, then did a clean (I thought) install of PMail and things are still misbehaving.  It starts up than finds a problem and says it has to exit.  Since I can't find any processes to stop in Task Manager, and Minidump won't install until I do, I'm stuck at the moment. 

Um, in case it matters the chronology was:  SHutdown, chkdsk etc., try PMail - still messed up.  Download MiniDump attempt to install.  Install new PMail download.  Everything continues to be messed up.

 Will entertain any suggestions!  And appreciate the help very much

Thanks

[quote user="Elaine T"]Well, I've got a clue from Minidump:  It complains PMail is running, when Task Manager doesn't show any such thing.  So maybe it isn't shutting down all processes. [/quote]

The installer doesn't actually check for a running Pegasus Mail process, instead it checks whether WINPM-32.EXE can be opened for write access (without writing anything, of course). So it appears that something is preventing the installer from doing so: Installers always run with administrative access rights, so this can't be the issue here. My guess would be an AV scanner blocking file access both causing the installer to fail as well as Pegasus Mail itself.

After other problems developed I've decided I've got a malware infection. I'm going to reformat & reinstall everything (I'd been thinking of doing it anyway, this is just the last straw).

 Before I wipe it all out, can someone tell me where the PMail address book files are - I've searched this site as well as my computer (such as it is working and lets me) and haven't found that info.  The mail folders are all named "FolXXX.CNM," right?  So if I save all these I won't lose mail.  But I'd like to save my addresses too.

 And my set up info, if that's possible.  If you or someone could tell me what those file names are, and where they're apt to be I'd appreciate it.

>  Before I wipe it all out, can someone tell me where the PMail address book files are - I've searched this site as well as my computer (such
> as it is working and lets me) and haven't found that info.  The mail folders are all named "FolXXX.CNM," right?  So if I save all these I
> won't lose mail.  But I'd like to save my addresses too.

Folders PMM/PMI file pair

Addressbooks PMR/PM! File pair

New mail CNM file extension.

Checkout Han v.d. Bogaerde's Pegasus mail Links at http://www.vandenbogaerde.net/pegasusmail/  He has provided a lot of information on Pegasus Mail for Windows including the filename and file extensions.

Check Han's site of Pegasus Mail information for a list of the file extensions used by WinPMail and their functions.

Messages folders are a pair of files of same name .pmm is the data and .pml is the index. New mail messages not yet stored in folders are .cnm extension files, one per message.

Configuration and settings are stored in several files, there is not any one to save that has all information. Basically you need to save your ..pmail\mail\ and subdirs below files to be sure you have it all to restore from later.  With the basic single user setup your mail messages would be in c:\pmail\mail\admin location.

How will you save old files? Where? To what?  Keep in mind on restore to check and make sure none of the restored files are marked read only at OS level. Pegasus Mail can not work with read only files so remove the R attribute on files restored from backup program or cdrom etc..

Address books are also a file pair with .pmr data file and .pm! index of same name.

Han's site is http://www.vandenbogaerde.net/pegasusmail/