You have a problem. and it is more serious than you know. 17 X 2 (one copy for Outlook and the new copy for Thunderbird) is 34Gb Plus Thunderbird's search overhead and temp file usage while the conversion takes place.

Fundamentally you do not have enough disk space.

Thank You Matt,

Whilst I agree there is limited space on the partition C for 17 x 2GB, I not sure the issue is due to the limited size of the windows partition, as I monitored it while Thunderbird was importing the PST file and there many G’s of free space in C: before and after the crash.

Searching the WWW, I think it might be due to the remnant bits of a virus see URL below:- http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/protect/forum/mse-protect_scanning/win32aegrus-removal-from-outlook-2003-email/5bcb11f6-8b39-4d04-a41d-b18b11dabab3

I not sure what MS Security Essentials is, as I have only Windows Defender, I have scanned the PST file with MacAfee and no virus have been found. Do you fully understand the ideas and trail of thought in the dialogue on matter in the answer at the Microsoft Community www site?

BR

Oobals

Windows defender is the successor to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE)

What they are saying is that the import is being botched by a false positive anti virus alert.

I would suggest you turn off defender and try your import. If nothing else it will make things go faster. I would also open the windows temp folder and clean it of all the junk it contains it you have had the machine a while it could be 10 or 20 thousand files.

See for Microsoft's instructions on that process.

But in the end, once you have all this working you still will have inadequate disk space for it to complete.

Thank again Matt,

You are probably right about the limited partition size as a Window partition. When I installed Linux it took 20G out of it.

I did not want to expand as I intent to migrate to Linux once I have got my emails into Thunderbird, hence, is the a simple way to expand it to say !00G (there is space on the disk) and then shrink it after I have completed the email transfer?

Thanks Again,

OoBals

Not an expert, but from Linux you can modify partition sizes. Not from windows. It is not for the feint of heart though. If you mess up you can loose everything. On the flip side it is a GUI based tool. Or was last time I did it in Red Hat. So with due care and caution it is not difficult.

An alternative is to have Thunderbird use another disk for your profile. see these instructions http://kb.mozillazine.org/Moving_your_profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

Hi Matt.

Again many thank for your help, I have made a 75G c: partition and I have managed to get 50G free space, I have also shrink my pst file down to 12G. Alas, I still have not had any luck in importing it to Thunderbird. I don't have any errors any more, but the import Menus in Thunderbird freezes and there is not activity on the disk. I have reloaded Thunderbird a number of times and my Outlook file/emails work fine. I going to give up now and have another go on Wednesday.

Thanks again,

Oobals

next time try the import in widows safe mode..... It will disable the anti virus, but it will also disable the internet so in quiet isolation. Give if a go and see if it is all the security programs and helpers that are the root cause.

Finally, got to update my emails into Thunderbird today, Yes you do need at least double the size of the PST files free in the same drive that Outlook and Thunderbird reside to do the import. The wait a very long time if the PST is very large.

Thank You for Your Help and advice Matt.

Best regards

Oobals