Windows Live Mail won't import emails

[Gabby001]

I recently had a hard-drive failure, so reinstalled everything on a new HD. Since then I have salvaged all my old files from the old HD using recovery software (Handy).
I was using using Windows Live Mail (WLM) on the old HD with Vista, and I'm still using WLM on the new HD - with Windows 7.
I can see all my emails (of several years) via the hotmail webpage, however when I added this hotmail email account to WLM I can only see the last 9 months via WLM. Weird.

So I have gone back to my salvaged HD and copied over the emails (as eml files) and then tried to import into WLM using the "import messages" function.
The first step in the import function is to select the email format - so select WLM. Next step is to browse to the folder containing the emails, then click "next".

Unfortunately it fails at this point with the following message :-
"Import Messages
No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that may have fioles open"

This happens for any folder I select, and I am definitely not accessing the folder with any other application - so I'm stuck, I don't understand the problem.
(I also tried copying and pasting the emails over into the correct new folders in WLM, but of course these are simply ignored by WLM, so that doesn't work).

Please can anyone advise me on what I need to do to import all my old emails into WLM (they are all still accessible by the hotmail webpage) ?

 

[seavixen32]

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

Have a look at this tutorial, which may be of help to you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/116162-windows-live-mail-export-import-email-messages.html

 

[Gabby001]

I've already looked at that tutorial. I get stuck at step 5 of Option Two of that tutorial, with the error message that I described earlier :-
"Import Messages
No messages can be found in this folder or another application is running that has the required files open. Please select another folder or try closing applications that may have files open"

 

[seavixen32]

I'll post this link more in hope than anything else: Windows Live Mail Help Center - Import Email Messages or Back Up and Restore Windows Live Mail

I'm just wondering if you need to choose a different file format when you try and import the messages?

 

[roncerr]

I have noticed that behavior when I try to import from a folder directly holding the emails. I think that's because when you export messages from an email program (one of the 3 import types) that format and group of folders is what the import process is looking for. However, I have no problem adding random *.eml files on the hard drive to a subfolder within WLM. All you need to do is select them in Windows Explorer and drag them into one of the subfolders within the open WLM program.