problem backing up proile
I bought a new computer so I am trying to back everything on the old computer up to a new external hard drive prior to setting up the new one. I have managed to find my profile for Thunderbird with no problems. However, when I try to paste it to 1) another drive on my current hard drive, 2) the new external hard drive, or 3) a USB drive I get the same error.
It gets to 59%, stalls, and then says "Interrupted Action. Can't read from the source file or disk". Specifies Inbox
I tried Googling a solution, but nothing I'm trying is working. From that search, I have found out the following information if any of this helps with solving the problem. Computer hard drive is file system is NTSF while the external hard drive is Exfat. The size of the profile is 3.7 gb. It was over 4.3, but I cleaned some things out.
Thunderbird is not open while I am trying to do this and have rebooted the system after making clean up actions to email before trying to do the copy/paste so nothing should be open and interfering.
Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide that would be of assistance.
I would really appreciate any help. Thanks!
All Replies (10)
Is the old disk in good health, that is, has no bad sectors on it?
When I went to the area that shows check disk, my computer said I didn't need to do a scan that it was not seeing any bad sectors. My take on that was that I have a check automatically set up on that for routine maintenance as I do defrag and that there are no issues. I did not run a special check disk tonight. I can certainly do so; it will take about 8 hours to run per my computer.
I wouldn't know which area you're referring to. The only sure way you can check the disk for bad sectors is to run a surface scan using a suitable scanner. I use Macrorit Disk Scanner (there are other scanners) for this. To scan for and attempt recovery of data (file clusters) from bad sectors, use chkdsk with the /r switch. It takes quite a while, depending on size of data/disk and severity of the disk surface. This is not automatically run routinely as is the case with defrag.
If third-party software is interfering with the copy process, for example antivirus programs, you can disable them and try again, or better yet, boot into Windows safe mode and try the copy.
I ran the scan disk which found no bad sectors. I also tried doing the copy/paste in safe mode. I still get the same error.
Try methods 1 & 2 as explained here https://appuals.com/fix-cant-read-from-the-source-file-or-disk/
Method 1 - It won't copy in safe mode. I get an error that says File not found or no read access. I checked the security under properties and it says I have full control so I don't know what that is about.
Method 2 - they don't have a Windows 10 version. I tried the stand alone Windows 8 version. It gets to about halfway through the Inbox and freezes. I've let it run for 12+ hours and it just wont go any further.
Sounds like the Inbox file is damaged. Skip it and copy the rest. You can move it to a different location on the same drive then copy the entire profile folder to your external drive and to the new PC.
I understand the skip it part. But I don't understand how I can move it to a different location on the same drive. Wouldn't that involve copying and pasting it which is what I can't do? And the Inbox, and the folders under it, are basically what I need to import to the new system. What am I missing?
Move and copy work differently. When you move a file from one location to another on the same drive (volume), the file does not change its physical location on the drive. Only the drive's master file table gets updated to point to the file's "new" location, but the file itself stays where it originally was on the surface of the disk. You may have noticed this when moving stuff around within the same drive, especially big ones. They appear to be moved super quickly compared to copying them or moving them to a different drive. For example, the Desktop and Thunderbird profile folder are both located on the same drive C: but they are in different locations. The Desktop is located in C:\Users\UserName while Thunderbird's profile folder is located in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles by default.
There isn't much you can do with a damaged/corrupt file. If Thunderbird is somehow able to run and access the Inbox file's contents without any hiccups, then create a new folder and subfolders under the Local Folders account and Copy the messages from the Inbox to their respective subfolders. Do that in small batches of messages per folder at a time instead of selecting everything. The idea is to successfully retrieve as many messages as you can from the damaged Inbox file, because it's evident that trying to recover the Inbox as a whole is not going to work.
Do you not have a recent backup of your system, or the original copy of these messages on the mail server?
No,unfortunately not on the backup. A new external hard drive for that purpose is what I am trying to copy the profile to.
There is undoubtedly fairly recent stuff on the mail server, but not everything.
Thanks for the information. I will try your suggestion this weekend when I have time to devote to it and I'll let you know.