How can I retrieve email folders that were deleted in Thunderbird?

Question

I had downloaded email folders from a webmail acct. I was adjusting the address for Thunderbird to obtain emails and when I looked back, the 4 folders of emails had been deleted. Can they be retrieved? If not is, there a way to undelete files on the hard drive with Windows 7?

Answer 1

old website server -
Connect to server by resetting the account details to the correct orginal settings and subscribe to see folders.
Then synchronize all folders, so you keep a copy on the computer.
'Keep messages for this account on this computer' should be checked if you want to synchronize messages between your local system and your mail server.
see:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/imap-synchronization#w_configuring-synchronization-and-disk-space-usage
When all folders have been synchronized you will have a copy of all emails and folders on your computer in your profile., but they can still be altered if they resynch with server.
So, go into 'offline' mode, which will stop any connecting with server.
In offline mode (two black screen icon shows in bottom left of Status bar), move all folders with emails into Local Folders.
Local folders is a special default account in your profile folder. The folders and emails in Local Folders are on your computer and will no longer be connecting to the server.
Do not change/modify the old imap account settings. When you are certain that all emails are in Local Folders, remove/delete the mail account.
Tools > Account Settings
select the old imap mail account name
click on 'Account actions'
select : Remove account'
click on OK
Create a new imap mail account for the new server settings. As folders are viewed remotely, these emails are on the server, so when you create a new imap mail account to connect to that server, you will see all your subscribed folders and their emails.
You can continue to see old emails in Local folders.
New Imap mail account will show the new emails in that mail account.