Getting my data back after a disk crash
I think McAfee deleted a lot of my system files and so I have replaced the hard drive & the O/S. I have recovered what I can from my old hard drive. I'm now trying to recover my Thunderbird data which is giving me some grief. I've followed all the instructions I can find on the internet about migrating to a new computer and I still can't get my data back. I have actually copied the directory from my old hard drive using a docking station to the new hard drive. But when I launch Thunderbird I get the startup screen. It's doesn't seem to matter how I get the files where they belong it doesn't start where it normally used to. Also where do I find the files that contain my address book? I have no idea where it is.
It was fun trying to recover my bookmarks in Firefox too. I was able to find an old backup on the old hard drive the fixed that problem.
Chosen solution
I would advise that you start afresh and try the following:
Uninstall Thunderbird.
Mac OS X Profile folders are located here:
~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name>/
The tilde character (~) refers to the current user's Home folder, so ~/Library is the /Macintosh HD/Users/<username>/Library folder.
re:I have actually copied the directory from my old hard drive Copy the old 'Thunderbird' folder from the old 'Library'
Access the current new 'Library' folder and delete the current 'Thunderbird' folder. Then paste the old 'Thunderbird' folder into the 'Library'
Download and install the same version of Thunderbird that you were using at time of crash.
You can find out what version you were using by looking in the 'Thunderbird' folder.
~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name> folder
look for this file 'compatibility.ini' and open with a text editor program, It will tell you the version that profile last used.
Once installed, start Thunderbird.
This is were you can locate previous versions: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/
So if last using version 78.12.0 - then: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/78.12.0/ click on on the 'mac' option choose prefered language eg: en-GB is English British then download the File Thunderbird 78.12.0.dmg to install.
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Chosen Solution
I would advise that you start afresh and try the following:
Uninstall Thunderbird.
Mac OS X Profile folders are located here:
~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name>/
The tilde character (~) refers to the current user's Home folder, so ~/Library is the /Macintosh HD/Users/<username>/Library folder.
re:I have actually copied the directory from my old hard drive Copy the old 'Thunderbird' folder from the old 'Library'
Access the current new 'Library' folder and delete the current 'Thunderbird' folder. Then paste the old 'Thunderbird' folder into the 'Library'
Download and install the same version of Thunderbird that you were using at time of crash.
You can find out what version you were using by looking in the 'Thunderbird' folder.
~/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/<Profile name> folder
look for this file 'compatibility.ini' and open with a text editor program, It will tell you the version that profile last used.
Once installed, start Thunderbird.
This is were you can locate previous versions: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/
So if last using version 78.12.0 - then: http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/78.12.0/ click on on the 'mac' option choose prefered language eg: en-GB is English British then download the File Thunderbird 78.12.0.dmg to install.
Thanks very much for your assistance.