I have several email accounts setup in my Thunderbird. Recently, I began having problems with my "inbox" on my most important account. Some of the emails disappeared. I would get an hourglass (running XP Pro) when clicking on the inbox and waiting for the messages to show (index?). I then lost all emails from 09/22 to 10/06. It was on 10/6 when I was experiencing the problem.

I then had the bright idea to create a new account within my default profile and thought I would transfer my emails over and then delete the old account once I had everything running. I discovered that I could not create a new account with the duplicate information. So what I did next was to change the existing server information on my existing account to something random. Once I did this I created a new account with my previously correct information. The problem was that this account was created but did not display anywhere on the accounts screen. It began receiving emails (as evidenced by the window in the systray indicating that 3 new messages had come in for this particular account). However, I can not see the account anywhere to retrieve the info.

I then decided to try and change the now-incorrect account back to the correct information in order to attempt to retrieve the new emails. The problem? It told me that there was already an account with this information! ARG!!!

So now what I am trying to avoid is the loss of all data in each account (I have about 5 or 6 of them) in Thunderbird as well as retaining my address book.

I need help because my emails are critical to the successful operation of my business. I am trying to find an effective way to backup all my emails, uninstall this apparently corrupted Thunderbird, reinstall the application, and then retrieve my critical data (i.e. all inboxes, outboxes, drafts, etc.) for each of my accounts.

Can you please help me?

Thanks much
-Kris in SC