importing PST file from Outlook to Thunderbird

Hi actionparsnip,
these methods are not working out.
could you please help me importing my PST archive to thunderbird step by step?
I tried to use readpst, Import/Export tool, even installed thunderbird on my windows OS to try convert the PST archive. but all of these methods didn't work out.
I'm really willing to be an Ubuntu user for good, but I need to tackle this challenge first.

Appreciate your precious support and help.

Well, if you want to get detailed help, you should give details description of your problem. What steps did you take and what exactly went wrong?

First, I tried to import mail and address book from Outlook using Tools/Import, but when I choose "import every thing" or indicating specific type of data to be imported, thunderbird is hanging and sometimes totally crashes.
I tried the same action on both Ubuntu OS and Windows OS and got the same result.

Secondly, as per the first link you provided :
http://askubuntu.com/questions/264368/how-to-integrate-outlook-2003-pst-file-to-thunderbird

I tried to open the directory where I'm saving my PST archive to creat a directory for exporting it, I got this output from the terminal:
ashry@ashry-Inspiron-N5110:~$ /media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email Backup/ibmbackup.pst
bash: /media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email: No such file or directory

I see the problem with your bash command line: there is a space character in one of your folder names, "Email Backup".
Spaces in folder names cause endless trouble! Try to avoid them!

To work with this folder, either enclose the file path in quotes, e.g.
   ls -l "/media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email Backup/"

or escape the space character in the filename with a backslash:
   ls -l /media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email\ Backup/

My inclination would be to rename the offending folder:
   mv "/media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email Backup/" "/media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email_Backup/"

Also, note that bash itself gave you a useful clue: there really is no such file or directory as '/media/ashry/161CAEEE1CAEC7D7/Business/Email'

Dear Jonathan,

I renamed the PST archive but still having the same problem.
when I installed the import/export add-on from Thunderbird, It was trying to import the archive file from my email server.
but the PST file is saved to my local partition (not the system partition).
can anyone help me using the archive file with Thunderbird?

I tried this order:

sudo apt-get install readpst
mkdir pst-export
readpst -D -M -b -o pst-export archive.pst
find . -type f ! -iname '*.eml' -exec rename 's/([0-9]+)$/$1.eml/' {} \;

and here is the out put:

ashry@ashry-Inspiron-N5110:~$ sudo apt-get install readpst
[sudo] password for ashry:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libatk1.0-0:i386 libcairo2:i386 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libgraphite2-3:i386
  libgtk2.0-0:i386 libharfbuzz0a:i386 libjasper1:i386 libnspr4:i386
  libnss3:i386 libnss3-1d:i386 libpango-1.0-0:i386 libpango1.0-0:i386
  libpangocairo-1.0-0:i386 libpangoft2-1.0-0:i386 libpangox-1.0-0:i386
  libpangoxft-1.0-0:i386 libpixman-1-0:i386 libxcb-render0:i386
  libxcb-shm0:i386 libxft2:i386
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  readpst
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 82 not upgraded.
Need to get 796 B of archives.
After this operation, 21.5 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://sa.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy/universe readpst all 0.6.59-1build1 [796 B]
Fetched 796 B in 0s (919 B/s)
Selecting previously unselected package readpst.
(Reading database ... 169557 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking readpst (from .../readpst_0.6.59-1build1_all.deb) ...
Setting up readpst (0.6.59-1build1) ...
ashry@ashry-Inspiron-N5110:~$ mkdir pst-export
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘pst-export’: File exists
ashry@ashry-Inspiron-N5110:~$ mkdir ibmbackup-export
ashry@ashry-Inspiron-N5110:~$ mkdir pst-export
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘pst-export’: File exists
ashry@ashry-Inspiron-N5110:~$ readpst -D -M -b -o pst-export ibmbackup.pst
Opening PST file and indexes...
Error opening PST file: No such file or directory
Error opening File

Is the pst file in the same location as you are running the command? It appears not.

this is the main issue now.
the PST archive file I need to import to thunderbird is placed in another partition rather than the system partition (c:).
it's located in D partition and the full path on MS Vista OS is (Computer/Local Disk (D:)/Business/Email Backup/ibmbackup).

let me re-phrase my question if there is no way to import it, is there any free converter that can convert PST archive files to MBOX format to be recognized by thunderbird on Vista OS as a first step to import it later on linux OS???

Then copy the pst to your Linux partition and use it there. You cant run commands and expect the OS to magically locate the file in some random lication. No OS works that way.

Sir,

I'm not that dummy :)

I already mentioned clearly earlier " the PST file is saved to my local partition (not the system partition)."
and sorry I cannot move it to the linux partition as the PST is huge and there is no enough space in linux partition to contain it.
that's why I was asking for a way to get the modified command to work for my case as per the information I provided.

Kindly inform if there are any free converters to convert the PST archive files to MBOX format and I will take care of the rest.
thanks in advance for your support.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Hi all,

It's me again :)
now let's have a a work around to solve this issue.
can any one help me for indicating a pst viewer working on ubuntu OS?

Hi All,

I just wanted to tell you that my problem is solved.
I divided my big size PST file into smaller sized files through outlook and finally got them imported by thunderbird.
It took about 5 hours to completely importing all the emails but at the end of the day, I nailed it :).
thanks for all your support.

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.