How do I recover the two tricky things (downloaded thunderbird emails, and protected image folder) from a dead laptop?

January 9, 2007 2:12 PM

How can I get access to my protected image folder from a dead laptop and find my email that i backed up on that drive from a new computer?

So my laptop nearly melted. the hard drive works fine, and i got an enclosure for it. I have access to all the data except... i was using a POP email account and downloading it to my computer. I was using mozilla thunderbird. It's not in any obvious place like the thunderbird folder or something, and searches haven't helped at all.

Any ideas where it is?

The second is that I messed with the settings on my images folder (using windows xp) so that now i can't access the folder on my drive since its on a new computer and presumably i'm not logged in. Is there a way to get access to that stuff?

thanks! t

posted by aussicht to computers & internet (4 comments total)

Netscape, Mozilla, and Thunderbird Mail Folder Location.

If you're just using the old hard drive as a USB external, I don't see why you shouldn't be able to just change the permissions on the images folder (Right click, Properties, I think) and set it to full access.
posted by gramcracker at 2:35 PM on January 9, 2007

Take Ownership of the files and folders, then change permissions. As this question is asked every week or two, there's lots of information in the archives about how to do it.
posted by majick at 2:38 PM on January 9, 2007

Your Thunderbird mail will be in [drive]:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\[garbage].default\. If you copy this entire folder to C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Thunderbird (on the new Windows install), you can then use the Thunderbird profile manager to select it as your default profile, and your entire former mail environment (messages, accounts, address book) will be restored.

Note that Windows XP marks the Application Data folder hidden, so you'll have to enable the display of hidden files under Tools->Options->View before you can see it in Explorer.

The Windows way to get access to folders you don't currently have permissions to see into is to take ownership of them.

Best of luck!
posted by flabdablet at 2:39 PM on January 9, 2007

thanks!
posted by aussicht at 9:45 AM on January 11, 2007