Lost everything after windows repair

[Willardx]

Hi. I have been using thunderbird for years. I just did a windows repair and I didn't register that this would delete my thunderbird accounts. I hadn't backed them up for years. Is there any way of restoring them? Thanks.

[tanstaafl]

Are you talking about windows startup repair? My impression was that fixed boot problems and normally left installed applications and their data as is. That's different from somebody who re-installed windows from scratch or re-installed windows while leaving existing apps/data as is.

In general terms, what did it do?

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/repair-windows-10

[Willardx]

I ticked the box to say keep files but it seems all additional software was removed. Really annoying!

[DanRaisch]

Search the entire hard drive for files with the extension .mab or the extension .msf.

[tanstaafl]

I ticked the box to say keep files but it seems all additional software was removed. Really annoying!

So you didn't do a startup repair, you did a re-install windows while keeping existing software?

You had to re-install Thunderbird because "all additional software was removed"?

Did your windows username change? If it did Thunderbird wouldn't find your old profile because it would be looking in the wrong directory tree.

[WaltS48]

I did a refresh without affecting my files back in September 2020, kept the same username and password and didn't lose anything.

Also backed up my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles to a USB stick to be safe.

Refresh, Reset or Restore your PC.

A Removed Apps.html file was also added to my desktop upon completion of the operation.