While upgrading windows 7 to windows 8.1, I created a new Microsoft account (*** Email address is removed for privacy ***). I was not allowed to use my old Hotmail.com email (*** Email address is removed for privacy ***) , so I used the same name but at hotmail.co.uk. Now I only receive a few welcome message from Microsoft, but cannot even login to my old Hotmail account, so I cannot access all my old messages. I would like to keep my old account name, as that is what all my friends know! How do I do this?

Note that I tried deleting the Hotmail.co.uk account, but that did not help, and I still seem to be on it.