Lost Mail & Folders

[AndyGz]

I was trying to recover some email from an old hard drive (Windows Vista Home
O/S on old and new PC's) and connected the old hard drive into my new PC as a
secondary HDD.

I opened the old Windows Mail program to find my old messages but it failed
to start and when I went back to my current Windows Mail app, there was no
messages or any of the folders I created. As there are a lot of important
emails I need to get them back as they must still be on the HDD somewhere?

AG

 

[Hal Hostetler [MVP-P/I]]

Your old messages should be in this folder on the old HD:

Users\(username)\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail

Navigate to this folder, open the subfolders where the messages are stored,
open Windows Mail, create folders, open a folder, and use Windows Explorer
to drag the discrete message files into the Windows Mail folder. Repeat for
additional folders.

Hal
--
Hal Hostetler, CPBE -- (e-mail address removed)
Senior Engineer/MIS -- MS MVP-Print/Imaging -- WA7BGX
http://www.kvoa.com -- "When News breaks, we fix it!"
KVOA Television, Tucson, AZ. NBC Channel 4
Still Cadillacin' - www.badnewsbluesband.com

 

[AndyGz]

Many thanks, but my question was not how to recover my old mail, but what has
happened to the mail and folders in my new Windows Mail account which
dissapeared after I tried to open the old mail application?

AG

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

When you attempted to run the old Windows Mail, it probably corrupted
some pointers to the new message store.

 

[AndyGz]

OK, so what do I do to recover my files and folders then?

AG

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Look for them under
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Mail\Local Folders\

 

[AndyGz]

Thanks Gary, I looked there and all the folders are there, and seem to be
showing 1 folder for each message, e.g Microsoft, Microsoft 1, Microsoft 2,
Amazon, Amazon 1, Amazon 2 and so on for each message/folder etc.
I'm using the import utility in Windows Mail, and the import options are
Outlook, Express or Windows Mail 7. Should I be using the import facility or
trying to drag and drop?

AG

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Try import first (Windows Mail 7).
If that fails for some reason, try drag & drop.

 

[M. Keen]

Thanks for the suggestion about finding a lost folder. I went to C: \users
etc. and typed Windows Mail and the folder name and ta da, there it all was.
Phew. I then put it in my Documents. How it wandered off, I do not know.
Maybe a mouse move that was not helpful. Anyway--THANKS. MS

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

You're very welcome.