Messages not showing previous conversations

After replacing a failing hard drive and tranferring files back to my computer, I opened the Messages app to find that while the people I had messaged were still there (on the left hand side), the actual content of the conversations were not.
I have a back up of my computer on a portable hard drive, could the archived messages be there somewhere?
I recently deleted many out-of-date conversations/messages on my iPhone, could that have contributed to the problem somehow?
Messages that I've sent/recieved today seem to be working just fine (on both phone and computer), so it seems like the "solution" is just to start fresh without any previous conversations. Just thought I'd check here first to see if anyone knew how to/if I could get them back?
I'm using OS X, version 10.8.5, and an iPhone 4S with iOS 6.1.3.
Cheers!

Hi,
iMessages are stored in a database called chat.db
This is in the ~/Library/Messages folder  (~/Library is short for Harddrive name/Users/(your shortname)/Library)
Enter the path in the Finder > Go Menu > Go to Folder dialogue box.
The trouble with now use Time Machine to "restore" the older saved version is it will not merge the new stuff.
The "sync" as Apple calls the process that shows the iMessages on all devices is just that (Display on All Devices) and is not is any other way a method of deleting them elsewhere and it changing what is on other devices.
(Read and Delivered also have little meaning on items that appear on one device as a result of the "sync").
7:53 pm      Friday; October 4, 2013
  iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

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