Now that we have installed Thunderbird, we can backup all the emails to be transfered to our new linux system. What we need to do is locate the email files through Windows Explorer.

1. Click on Start then My Computer
2. Once My Computer is open, double click on Local Disk (C:). The name 'Local Disk' will vary from computer to computer. But you will know you are in the right location by viewing (C:).
3. Once the C: drive is open, double click 'Documents and Settings'.
4. After clicking 'Documents and Settings', you will find a number of folders that represent user profiles. You usually don't see these folders.



When ever you turn on your computer, it will boot to a screen giving you a selection of profiles to choose from. Depending on how your computer is setup, it may have your name or any other words that you have chosen for this account.

The folders inside 'Documents and Settings' have the exact same names that you see during log on process of your computer. Double click the folder name that is the same name as what you logged onto and it may look as follows:



When inside this folder, you need to double click the 'Application Data' folder. If you can't see this, then you need to make your hidden files visible. You do this as follows; Click on 'Tools' at the top of the screen and then click on 'Folder Options'. Once the 'Folder Options' screen is open, you will see 3 tabs at the top. They read General, View and File Types. Click on 'View'. You will be presented with a list of Advanced Settings. Look for 'Hidden Files and Folders'. Once you find this, click on the option to 'Show hidden files and folders' then click OK.

After this is done, you will notice new folders in your window. You can now see the 'Application Data' folder as shown below.



You will then need to open the 'Thunderbird' folder, then the 'Profiles' folder and the 'xxxxxxxx.default' folder. Here you will find your Address book, Preferences and Mail.

Address Book = xxxxx.mab
Preferences = prefs.js
Mail = c:\Documents and Settings\xxxUserAccountNamexxx\Application Data\Thunderbird\profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\Mail

Copy the address book and preferences to a new folder. Also, copy just the mail folder to the new location also.

As a safety precaution, I would recommend you export your Address Book through Thunderbird as an LDIF or CSV file. Save it to the same location as the other files.



Once you have completed copying and exporting these files, save them to a USB drive or burn to a CD. This will allow them to be ready for the migration to PClinuxOS.