Total mess in store folder; how to recombine?

Well, I've been fighting with my WLM version 2012 on my W7Pro machine as it's been more than flaky of late.

My store folder is a total mess, with multiple instances of various folder, folders which should be populated with messages but are not, and - unknown, really, but certainly hoped - under many other folders, much of the missing data can be seen.

This pile (I hope it still does) represents my email history going back to at least 1995, now fractured.

The oldest and of most concern of the various storage folders, should this pile prove not to hold it all, can be retrieved from bit-for-bit backups over 2 years old (and many others preceding the most recent).

To do that (go to the backups) would be even more complicated, but COULD be done.

So, a couple of questions:

Is there a way to combine information scattered hither and yon in my current folder into a simple set of folders in my mail view (whether done inside the store folder or also with WLM open)?  I think I have done very minor versions of that when moving a file from my laptop to my main computer (the one with the problem), via some form of drag and drop that I don't remember currently.  However, some simple means would definitely ease the chore.

Or, failing that, is there any reason for me to NOT open windows explore, navigate to the store folders, and copy and paste/drag/whatever files to the desired (the one I'd see in my WLM view) folders?  That would be entirely tedious, but certainly do-able.

I've found that some of those folders have labeled every one of the files as the same date and time.  If I copy/paste those, will the original dates reappear, or will I have lost the ability to sort by date?

Thanks.