Where are my Thunderbird email files found on my C drive?

Thunderbird files are at
c:/Documents and Settings/<user>/Application Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/something.default/Mail/Local Folders
and other folders under Mail

Message repository is in the file named Inbox.
Files with <thund. folder>.msf are entries that point to Inbox

Other Thunderbird files are at
c:/Documents and Settings/<user>/Local Config/Application Data/Thunderbird

If you want to continue using Thunderbird you'd better delete the messages through the program.

Alright, that is more of my question. If I delete it through the folders it will screw it up?

This is an obvious question.

If you mangle inside the database, you will broke indexes, references and more.

Many times applications reference elements within several files, text or binary. It is rarely safe to cut a piece on one file.

This also applies to folders, since the different mailbox folders may have configuration references elsewhere

I agree with Xarcus in that you should try and search for emails with big sizes or with attachments within Thunderbird and delete them there. Probably the search function would allow you to only search for emails over a certain size and then you just have to press "delete" some times...

Sounds good, thanks a lot guys.

worth remembering that when you delete emails in thunderbird they only get removed onscreen, thunderbird actually stores them 'out of sight' in the original folder.

in windows explorer look at the size of a folder, delete the mail items through thunderbird, then youll see the folder size is exactly the same as before. gracefully exiting the programme doesnt dump these files either. you have enter thunderbird, right click on the folder and select "compact". then take a look at the file size in explorer. magic!

this is very handy for those who wish to take over the world and need a lighter file structure to do so ;)

david