I have installed Thunderbird and its data to alternate hard drives.

How did you relocate your profile?

LinusF said

I need to move three different PCs from WIN 7 to WIN 10. At the same time I will be changing the boot drives from tiny 64 GB SSDs to 1TB SSDs. Because my current drive is so small I have installed Thunderbird and its data to alternate hard drives. I would like to back up each PC's Thunderbird installation and then re-install it totally on the new MUCH larger boot SSD, not in the same drive(s) as currently. How do you propose I proceed? Thanks

I think that this is what you are looking for :

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=2838395

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Importing_folders

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/

P.S. Please do not delete anything until you are sure that your new installation works ! Personally then prior I used to use the "tools" , "import" function by having my emails in a format that Thunderbird would read....

christ1 said

I have installed Thunderbird and its data to alternate hard drives.

How did you relocate your profile?

@ christ1 , Use MozBackup ?  : http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/ Or this tool might be able to help you https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/ (but please do not "hijack" topic)

Use MozBackup ?

From http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/support.php : "MozBackup is not being developed anymore. There are known issues and there is no time on my side to fix all issues and develop new features. Use MozBackup only on your risk. Thanks for understanding."

I have on another drive "Thunderbird 31.2.0 (en-US) - 2014-11-25.pcv" folder. 2014 is when I installed the (small) SSD. File size: 1.24 GB I did use mozbackup for that move successfully.

Further question:

 What should I do to protect my profile if an attempt using MozBACKUP fails, assuming I even need it?  I see this effort as insurance.

FYI: The likely approach I will attempt is imaging the current C: drive (64 GB), writing the image to the new SSD (1TB), expanding the C: considerably and leaving the other drives intact. Later I will fix whatever has come loose with drivers and apps. Do you have any idea how this process will affect Thunderbird? How should I later migrate the data on the current HD to the new SSD?

Let me rephrase the question.

What is the location of your Thunderbird profile on the Win7 computer? Please provide the exact full path, including the name of the profile folder.

I don't care about any .pcv files you may have created.

In any case, make sure you do have a current profile backup prior to any attempt upgrading to Win10. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/profiles-tb#w_backing-up-a-profile

LinusF said

Further question: What should I do to protect my profile if an attempt using MozBACKUP fails, assuming I even need it? I see this effort as insurance. FYI: The likely approach I will attempt is imaging the current C: drive (64 GB), writing the image to the new SSD (1TB), expanding the C: considerably and leaving the other drives intact. Later I will fix whatever has come loose with drivers and apps. Do you have any idea how this process will affect Thunderbird? How should I later migrate the data on the current HD to the new SSD?

A simple imaging of one drive to another ought not destroy your Thunderbird data unless the OS will not run after disk imaging , and if you use a good tool to do the job then that ought not be a problem , but as long as you do not delete any data from the old drive and detach it from PC after copying then you can just re-attach the drive later and copy it again if you screw up...... And as for the other installations you could either copy the Thunderbird data from profile folders or use a good backup program (I use Paragon Software's Hard Disk Manager Professional ) so that you got a good backup if you screw up (it's always nice with a good USB drive for backup and a good backup program).

Every one was very helpful. I was able to image my existing (small) SSD and place it on a new (larger) SSD. Everything worked and then I WIN10'ed it. Works fine. Only remaining question for me is going through the material y'all sent to see how I should go about re-arranging my files since my C: drive is now big enough to handle all the Thunderbird folders/files.

LinusF said

Every one was very helpful. I was able to image my existing (small) SSD and place it on a new (larger) SSD. Everything worked and then I WIN10'ed it. Works fine. Only remaining question for me is going through the material y'all sent to see how I should go about re-arranging my files since my C: drive is now big enough to handle all the Thunderbird folders/files.

Simpler that you might think. More involved than it probably should be

Install this add-on 'https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/profileswitcher/

Use the menu entry it create to start the profile manger and create a new profile. Close Thunderbird Copy your data into the newly create profile Start Thunderbird. Use the profile manager entry to restart using your new profile.

Use the show profile button in Help menu > troubleshooting information to verify that you are dropped into the "new" profile location.

Done