If the eg: mother board died then computer will not bootup even if the hardrive is still ok. Did the Techs remove the hard drive from the computer/laptop and attempt to access it as if it were an external harddrive using another computer?

If yes and they could not get access becaue the hardrive really was dead, then I'm affraid the answer is no, you have lost that data.

Sometimes, it is possible to send a dead hardrive to a company that specialises in fixing broken parts of a harddrive to try to access that data - they have white room facilites, but it is expensive and does not guarrantee getting access. It would only be worth trying if the data on the hardrive was valuable.

They removed it & attempted access it.

They were able to recover data but they said (because it would not boot); they couldn't access the Thunderbird Files.

Does this answer your question or do you need more info.

I will print this message and share it with them.

Your comment sounds hopeful. If they removed it and could access data then this possibly means they could recover your Profile. It also sounds like the harddrive is not dead.

The problem is possibly that they did not know where to look and I'm not convinced at this point that the hardrive is really the root of the problem.

The Thunderbird profile folders are in the AppData folders, so are hidden files and folders. They would need to make hidden files and folders visible on the computer, then access the hardrive and look in this location: The AppData folder is folder is a hidden folder; to show hidden folders, open a Windows Explorer window and choose "Organize → Folder and Search Options → Folder Options → View (tab) → Show hidden files and folders".

If Windows 2000 and XP:

• C:\Documents and Settings\Windows user name\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\Profile name

If Windows Vista, 7 or 8:

• C:\Users\Windows user name\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird\Profiles\Profile name\

see: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Thunderbird

RE: hardrive I know the Tech man said the hardrive would not boot, but did they test this on another good computer that had the same OS or only on your dead computer that might have a dead motherboard?

This is a test that I would try. On a computer that has the same OS (must be identical) and is fully working, you can test to see if the allegedly faulty hardrive boots up the computer by changing where the computer boots from.eg: usb /external device

• http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/bootusbflash.htm

This would confirm if the hardrive is perfectly ok, but performance would not be so good, so not the best way to boot - good to test whether the hardrive is really a problem or whether the hardrive was good but the faulty computer had a dead motherboard so would not boot up even if the hardrive is perfectly ok.

Even if the old hardrive cannot boot: If you have got another computer, I would purchase the necessary cables to connect your old hardrive to the computer. Then you could access the hardrive yourself and use that hardrive copy as your backup to get the data back onto the internal hardrive. You could then always use the old hardrive as additional external storage.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNIeCOpIAbA

I just saw your reply. Your info is helpful.

Will print this message (when I get home) and share it with them.

Thanks again.

Printing this for my Tech (and my files.)

Would like to keep this Thread open until I am back up (and running) with Thunderbird.

Richard.

Will not consider it closed until I have an "up or down" on the Profile.

No worries, I'll keep this question in my watch list. Mozilla support keeps questions open for 6 months before archiving.

Thanks for your assistance.

They checked it today. They had tried everything you suggested but the drive was in too bad a shape to recover the (lost) messages.

I will hold the drive until I can get it recovered as there is MUCH info on it.

Richard