[Users] Help with Claws email restoration following Windows 7 reinstall

[Michael]

Andy,

Can you tell if you're downloading emails completely to your computer via POP protocol, or are you using IMAP which basically is just managing the mails on their server, even if a synced version got downloaded on demand ? I'm not sure how to deal with IMAP, but here's what i can tell about POP. 

I think you can just copy the stuff over, from the old HD to the new one. I'm not using Windows so i can only guess - but you need to find the Mail folder (containing the mail folders and files) somewhere in your user home directory, using File Explorer, then copy all mails from the old HD into the respective folders of the new install. Then, in claws, you right-click on the mail folder (top level, uppermost entry in the folder list on the left) and chose "rebuild folder tree". 

The following is experimental, dunno if it works that easily  --  but If you've used the new claws already and copy warnings appear about doubles (already existing in the new folder tree), note their names and location in the old tree, and rename them to another, unused / unique number, then repeat copying. For example, if file 6 already exists, rename it to 10 or 20. I hope any number will work. 

The addressbook is in another place, the claws config directory, and you probably can just overwrite the new, empty addressbook file with the old one. There's nothing to loose anyway, so just give it a try.

It comes with no guarantee since i've never really done something like this. I hope someone with more confidence will have a look and correct me if i'm mistaken.