Using second drive for email storage ?

[Mike109]

I'd like to keep my email data off the SSD which contains the Windows OS & programs.

I’ve read how to move the Profiles folder to a second drive & also how to change the Directory location in Account Settings/Server Settings. Most comments say there will be less problems if you move the whole profile. But I’d like to know what’s the problem with just changing the Directory location since that is an option in Account Settings/Server Settings.

I would like to know the pros & cons of each method.
Thanks

[tanstaafl]

Your address books, add-ons, the search index used by global search/indexing and some other global files have to stay in the profile. However, you can configure the "local directory" (the directory the account uses to store its file) for each account (its in the server settings, at the bottom, by a Browse button) to another drive. Just be aware you need to copy/moves the accounts files to the new location BEFORE you change the local directory. The main advantage of changing the local directory is its tougher to shoot yourself in the foot if you write down the old location beforehand, have less to learn, and if you're using a global inbox you only need to change one directory.

The advantage of moving the entire profile is its more straightforward, and saves the most space. The drawback is that with version 78 it gets a little more complex to move it. I recommend moving the profile AFTER backing up your profiles.ini file. Your biggest risk is messing up moving the profile. Thunderbird doesn't tolerate any errors in the profiles.ini file (which it uses to record what profiles exist and where they are).

I suggest you backup profiles.ini, goto help -> troubleshooting information, click on about:profiles (built-in profile manager), click on "create a new profile" and after exiting copy the contents of your old profile to the new profiles directory. Be careful to copy just the contents, not the actual profile directory.

Personally I prefer to use IMAP accounts and disable "offline folders" for them. That means the mail is always stored on the mail server and Thunderbird fetches a message as needed when you open it. That message is only in memory, not stored locally. That minimizes the size of the profile.

[Mike109]

Thanks for the reply & information.

I started using POP mail many years ago & stayed with it. My wife has a lot of photos in email (sent & received) that she wants saved, therefore I have about 2GB of email saved.

One concern is backing up data. If email is on the D: storage drive it will get backed up along with documents, pictures, etc.

I know an SSD can handle many years worth of writing & erasing data. It just seems that TB is going to spend a lot of time mainly doing that. Am I being overly concerned about “wearing” out the SSD?

[tanstaafl]

https://helpdeskgeek.com/reviews/everyt ... wear-tear/
https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/blo ... d-failure/
https://www.ontrack.com/en-us/blog/how- ... eally-last

Reading doesn't have much impact, its writing that does. Lifetime used to be an issue but nowadays due to wear leveling I'd expect it to last longer than a hard disk. I boot off of a SSD and expect it to exceed the PCs lifetime. When I eventually replace the PC I'll probably transfer some data from the SSD to the new PC and then retire the SSD. Partly due to not wanting to worry about when it dies (due to age, not wearing out) , but mainly because I'd rather use a faster larger SSD (the technology keeps improving) in the few slots that are available.

"A typical TBW figure for a 250 GB SSD lies between 60 and 150 terabytes written. That means: To get over a guaranteed TBW of 70, a user would have to write 190(!) GB daily over a period of one year (in other words, to fill two thirds of the SSD with new data every day). In a consumer environment this is highly unlikely."

"The most recent estimates put the age limit for SSDs around 10 years – though the average SSD lifespan is shorter. A joint study between Google and the University of Toronto tested SSDs over a multi-year period. It was found that the age of the SSD was the primary determinant of when an SSD stopped working. The study also found that SSDs were replaced about 25% less often than HDDs."

[Mike109]

Thanks for all the information.

I'm moving everything to another PC with an SSD and an HDD and this got me thinking about email storage. The information you provided makes it look like the SSD will last for many years so I'll keep the email on it.

I'm on TB 68.12.1 & it now shows an update path to 78.13.0 which I'll do, vs doing a download & install. But I'm curious about the comment you made regarding moving profiles and "with version 78 it gets a little more complex to move it".

Since I have to move the profiles to another PC what has changed with them?

Should I install TB 68.12.1 on the other PC first, move the profiles there, then update to 78.13.1?

[JYLD]

I like keeping my TB profile on a drive other than my C drive because the emails coming in and out all the time kind of screw up disk fragmentation on my C drive. So I created a T Drive that I use basically exclusively for TB. So I put my profile on the T Drive. I also found it convenient to make the path on the T Drive the same as it would be on the C Drive. So instead of my profile and mail being stored on my C drive at "C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6ztqu4q0.AB\" so its located on the T Drive at "T:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\6ztqu4q0.AB\"

I'm using TB 60.9.1. Keep in mind that even though your profile is on a different drive that there are important elements to your TB setup that remain on the C Drive. Things like the profiles.ini file, etc. So if you want a complete back up of your TB setup you have to backup not just the "T Drive" profile path but also the files at "C:\Users\[username-login name]\AppData\Local\Thunderbird\" and "C:\Users\[username-login name]\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\"

My T Drive is a partition on the same SSD drive that contains my C Drive primary partition.

[Mike109]

Thunderbird frequently locks up. It works great until it doesn't.

I created a Profile folder on the storage D: drive & copied the profiles to it, using an EHD to go between the old & new PCs.

I had TB create a new profile & chose the path to the appropriate profile on the D: drive. I did this for each profile.

It was working great but then later in the day I could not open TB because it was already running. I could not close it Task Manager. I could not shut down the PC via Windows and had to power off the PC. When I turned it back on it was working OK. I did reinstall of TB after the first time but it made no difference & still happens.

Starting yesterday, sometimes TB opens to a blank screen & says TB running but not responding. I cannot close it, restart or shut down the PC. It has to be powered off.

It then works great but several times a day TB is not responding.

Firefox has been working properly, but If I try to open it when TB is not responding, then FF is also not responding & cannot be closed.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?
Thanks

[JYLD]

Check your profiles.ini and install.ini files. Look for them on both C and D drives. They should only be on your C drive where TB and Firefox are installed. That is true even if your profile is on the D drive. Bad path references in the profiles.ini file can cause some of the problems you are seeing.

[Mike109]

I moved two TB profiles from the D: drive to the C : drive and they have been trouble free since. However the profiles still on the D: drive have caused a few more “not responding” messages.

Then I saw your comment about profiles.ini should only be on the C drive. I did have a copy of the old profiles.ini on the D drive for reference. I renamed it and that appears to have solved the problem with the profiles that were on the D: drive.

However Firefox has now had 2 occurrences of “running but not responding”.

The only time it had a problem before was trying to run it when TB was locked up. This caused FF to also lockup & I presumed one was affecting the other.

But now FF just locked up by itself. IOW I could open TB and it worked. In this case one did not affect the other.

FF has two profiles on the D drive and also a backup copy of the old profiles.ini which has been renamed. Not sure why FF is now acting up, but cannot Restart or Shut down when that happens & have to power off the PC.

I moved those two profiles to the C drive and will see what happens.

[Mike109]

Everything was working great last night, this morning & this afternoon. That's about 24 hours of success.

But then FF froze when opening. Just a plain white screen & no mention if it was running or not responding. Nothing.

Went into Task Manager & there 4 instances of FF running. I was able to end 2 of them but the other 2 said "The operation could not be completed" and "Access is denied".

Tried to use taskkill and kill the PIDs of the 2 remaining running FFs. But it said could not be done and they were not running. Task Manager says they're running, taskkill says they're not. Had to power off the PC.

A couple hours later TB opened to a white screen & froze & the message in the upper left corner said it was not responding. And once again I could not end it and had to power off the PC.

FF and it's profiles are all on the C: drive which I thought solved the problem but obviously not. FF may be the easier problem to solve since it's all on the C: drive.

Any suggestions where to go from here? Should I also post this in the FF forums?