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Corrupt hard drive won't allow WIN optg system to load, is there a way to transfer T-bird contacts & stored emails w/o startup & export?

SpringerSpaniel
SpringerSpaniel
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Without the known ability to startup Thunderbird, is there a Thunderbird CONTACTS and STORED EMAIL file that can be manually transferred from the File Manager to a USB drive to copy/import onto replacement computer? Hard drive became corrupted within windows operating system and the computer would not boot/start. Boot repair also failed. After almost 2 weeks of various startup workarounds and about to remove the hard drive to place in an external case to access data, the computer was able to start in limited SAFE MODE where I started the process of manually transferring files via File Mgr with a USB flashdrive. Please note, since the system is still unstable but the File Mgr works for manual file xfers to a USB flash, I have NOT attempted to start other programs (including T-BIRD) so not to risk freezing or shutting down what little access I currently can obtain.

If there is no option to manually xfer individual T-BIRD contact and email files, I will eventually attempt to start Thunderbird and see if it will perform the normal export of contacts and email function to the USB flash drive. Thank you for any help with this problem.

Without the known ability to startup Thunderbird, is there a Thunderbird CONTACTS and STORED EMAIL file that can be manually transferred from the File Manager to a USB drive to copy/import onto replacement computer? Hard drive became corrupted within windows operating system and the computer would not boot/start. Boot repair also failed. After almost 2 weeks of various startup workarounds and about to remove the hard drive to place in an external case to access data, the computer was able to start in limited SAFE MODE where I started the process of manually transferring files via File Mgr with a USB flashdrive. Please note, since the system is still unstable but the File Mgr works for manual file xfers to a USB flash, I have NOT attempted to start other programs (including T-BIRD) so not to risk freezing or shutting down what little access I currently can obtain. If there is no option to manually xfer individual T-BIRD contact and email files, I will eventually attempt to start Thunderbird and see if it will perform the normal export of contacts and email function to the USB flash drive. Thank you for any help with this problem.

All Replies (3)

iampowerslave
iampowerslave
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YES! just copy this:

C:\Users\YOUR NAME\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles

Then install TB in a new computer or hard drive, start it.

Replace the Profile folder contents with what you had and that's it.

(maybe you have to replace the content inside the randomly named folder instead)

SpringerSpaniel
SpringerSpaniel Question owner
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Thanks iampowerslave, I'll try your suggestion this weekend. I installed TBird on my new laptop only a couple weeks ago, so there is not much new or important content.

Any suggestions as to possibly merge the old and new info? It's not critical, but might be helpful to have some of the new TBird email. Worse case is just start fresh with the profile folder copy of the old into the new, or possibly see if I can export the "new" usage into a stored file before a fresh restart then import back once the "old" folders are xfered.

I'll post an update. Thanks again.

iampowerslave
iampowerslave
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Sure, if you can recover your old profile you might be able to create a new account (different, fake) in the new computer.

Then transfer the internal Mail or ImapMail folder of that old account from the old computer to the new one.

That way you'll have two accounts in TB. Drag and drop the old or new mails/folders from one account or the other and you'll have them merged.

Before doing that have a backup (a copy) of each the old and new in a separate place you will only use if things go wrong.

You may want to put TB offline so no incoming messages change your inboxes while you merge.