corrupted / vanished profile

hello fellows,

I don't know why but all of a sudden after launching
Mozilla Mail (version 1.6beta, Windows XP german) it
comes up with the Account Wizard and all my seven email
accounts I used to have and my two news accounts
are gone. Everything empty.

Of course, I don't have a backup of my profile folder.


There was just one profile ("default") and the
corresponding folder still exists at
C:\Dokumente und 
Einstellungen\Stefan\Anwendungsdaten\Mozilla\Profiles\default\xxxxxxxx.slt

(replaced the actual name of the SALT folder with
xxxxxxxx).

I checked the FAQs, especially the official one
at mozilla.org but that didn't help. I don't understand
the description at 
http://www.mozilla.org/start/1.5/faq/profile.html#transport :

<cite>
6. In the Accounts pane on the left, navigate to the Local Folders 
account. On the right pane, change Local Directory to reflect the new 
profile directory.
</cite>

??? I don't see an entry "Local Folders" in this dialog!
Was this changed from 1.5 to 1.6b?

Anyway. I tried everythign I found on the web -- repairing
the profile, deleting *.msf files etc., creating a new
profile and copying the Mail-folders and all other files
to the new profile directory -- in vain. To no avail.

But, hey, the Mail folders and all other files are *there*!
Is there no way to tell Mozilla "scan this folder and rebuild
the profile from what you find"?
The prefs.js is obviously a problem: it contains no entries
regarding my mail setup. Here it is:

user_pref("browser.bookmarks.added_static_root", true);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.parent_directory", "C:\\DOKUMENTE UND 
EINSTELLUNGEN\\STEFAN\\ANWENDUNGSDATEN\\Mozilla\\Profiles\\default\\xxxxxxxx.slt"); 

user_pref("browser.search.defaultengine", 
"engine://C%3A%5CProgramme%5Cmozilla.org%5CMozilla%5Csearchplugins%5Cgoogle.src"); 

user_pref("browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone", "rv:1.6b");
user_pref("intl.charsetmenu.browser.cache", "UTF-8, ISO-8859-1");
user_pref("ldap_2.prefs_migrated", true);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.history.filename", "history.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.history.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.filename", "abook.mab");
user_pref("ldap_2.servers.pab.replication.lastChangeNumber", 0);
user_pref("mail.smtpservers", "");
user_pref("mail.ui.folderpane.version", 3);
user_pref("mailnews.quotingPrefs.version", 1);
user_pref("mailnews.start_page.enabled", false);
user_pref("mailnews.ui.threadpane.version", 4);
user_pref("prefs.converted-to-utf8", true);
user_pref("signon.SignonFileName", "xxxxxxxx.s");

(again, replaced actual filenames with xxxxxxxx)

Any idea? That would be SO great! I really need my old mails
back!!

Should I go back to version 1.5 or would that be a no-no?

btw: in the *browser* my bookmarks are fine! They're still there!

THANKS a LOT!
Stefan.