On 10/25/2015 4:34 PM, Ian Jackson wrote:
My neighbour's Vista PC packed up, and he bought a new W8.1 machine.

The place that supplied it was supposed to have transferred over all the
stuff that was on the Vista PC, but there is no working email. For this
and for other reasons, he asked me if I could have a quick look at
things, and try and sort it out.

He has a 16GB memory stick, which is believed to have the transfer data
on it.

However, he also has the original Vista hard drive, which is OK (it
wasn't the cause of the failure). So instead of the trying to use the
memory stick, would it be possible to use a USB adapter on the hard
drive, and transfer the Vista email directly to the W8 PC? [I think it
was either Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail, and that there are three
password-protected accounts.]

Also, I'm confused about which email client you're supposed to use with
W8. Google brings up loads of information - much of which is
contradictory. So far, I haven't tried the W8 Outlook app, and
personally I think they might be better off using something 'sensible'
like Thunderbird.

So, if I installed Thunderbird, could I assess the Vista disk directly,
and export the email files to the W8 PC (of course, then import them
into Thunderbird)?

If the hard drive on his old computer is good, do him a favor and get a
USB enclosure for it. The enclosure will provide a good external drive
back up for his main computer. First he can use it as it comes from
the old computer to retrieve all of his data. After a couple of months
and he is sure he has everything on the new computer, he can reformat
the now external drive and use it as a backup to his main computer.