Mac Help pleeeeeeaase v serious!!!

[JOETHETOE]

For some reason my outgoing server wasnt working today and whilst trying to sort it out I delete my email account in mail preferences!!!!!! Does anyone know if I canj get it back, this is obvioulsy terrible as most of my work is done via email so im screwed at the moment???

Please please help if you can!?!?!?

Thanks

Joe

[tycho]

If you go to your ISP's home page then they usually have the outgoing mail server settings there. What email provider and ISP do you use?

[The Dude]

If you use the Mail application (that is part of OS X) then the associated files and folders are in (home)/Library/Mail. There should be a folder in there called "[account type Mac/pop]-[your email address] or something similar (without the square brackets) e.g. if you have a pop3 account and your email is [e-mail] the folder will be called "[e-mail]". If you open that folder you should see folders like "inbox.impambox" etc. All your emails are stored there.

If the folder is still there you can use the Import function of Mail (File->Import Mailboxes), select "Mail for Mac OS X" and navitagate to the first folder above (Library/Mail), click on the account folder as described above and select "Choose".

If the folder is not there, check that it's not in the Trash as it might have been dumped there when you removed the mail account.

Hope that helps.

(Edited to try and add a little clarity )

Edited by The Dude on Friday 11th May 10:14

[The Dude]

Ouch. I've just tested my explanation with a made up mail account on my Mac and it seems removing the account permanently removes all those files.

[Leithen]

In which case... do you have any backups...???

If not, last straw to clutch at, are you using IMAP or POP, if POP, did you have Mail set to remove mail from server....??

[PJ S]

Stop using Mail or trying to re-set it up and get a copy of Data Rescue X or TechTool Pro 4 and use it to scavenge the HDD for the files.
They've only been deleted from the index table - hopefully little or none of the data has been overwritten.
Once recovered, you can set up Mail again, and add these folders back to where they belong.
Reboot and they'll be available once you launch Mail.

Edited by PJ S on Friday 11th May 10:50

[JOETHETOE]

Many thanks, guys thankfully I only lost 3 weeks worth of mails not sure why but had a specialist look at it. really appreciate you all taking the time to help.

Sorry for late reply but been away.

Cheers again.