Moving Thunderbird Data Files to Windows 8

Jacoby

New Email
It should be easy to move my Thunderbird data files from Windows XP to Windows 8 but I am missing a step. I copied all of the files to an external hard drive and connected it to my new computer. Then I copied those files so I would not lose my backup to the new computer and installed Thunderbird. This process works for most programs but it's not working for my email. Do you have any pointers?