restoring bookmarks on mozilla

I had a crash and wound up reformatting the hard drive. Is there a way to get the old bookmarks on mozilla back?

Thanks JA. I am so frazzled I forgot to mention I do have a Seagate backup hard drive, the Free Agent, I use. I back up periodically the entire computer so they are on there somewhere. Do you know how to find it, or the name of the file, and how to restore it? Thanks. Tom

Firefox's bookmarks can be a little difficult to find and restore, unless you have been doing it manually as JA suggested. I never have figured out how where Firefox stores them by default. No doubt they are somewhere in your backup drive, but I don't know the secret to finding them.

This is probably a little late, but Firefox 4 has a bookmark "sync" feature. After easily setting up an account with Mozilla, it automatically backs up bookmarks to the cloud and synchronizes them on all your computers. Once setup, it works silently in the background. I started using it a couple months ago and it works beautifully.

This is how I do that or more preciously how I move my Firefox settings, bookmarks and add ons from one computer to another. I like this because it also keeps all the favicons as well.

First make sure your computer is set to see hidden files and folders. Depending on what version of windows you're using the  files may be in a slightly different place. This is windows 7. And I always make sure the firefox versions are the same.

Open My Computer and go to: C:-Users-The user name, in my case it's P-AppData-Roaming-Mozilla-Firefox-Profiles- xxxxxxx.default

Notice the file name .default will be different on every install. That should be all the stuff you need in there.

With that file open I select organize, select all and copy and paste the files into a folder.

Next is to move that folder over to where you want to use it, go through the steps to the destination file and with that file open paste the files into that folder. You will get a warning, I don't remember exactly, do you want to overwrite these files, something like that. Anyway clik yes and Ok and you should be good to go.

Yes, I backed up the entire computer. I have looked for 'bookmarks' and there is no file I can find so lableled, or with the name firefox or mozilla. There are files named 'favorites' but I don't know what they contain. I have win 7 and went to folder options and unclicked all the boxes to show hidden files, etc. The trick I guess is to locate the 'bookmarks' on the seagate back up drive.

According to seagate, if you format your main hard drives you cannot do a restore. I was told by the technician, who did it remotely, that you have to open the seagate drive that contains the files you backed up and manually transfer them to your folders. Don't ask me why, that is what he said. I called bec I couldn't figure out how to retrieve the files after the main drives were inadvertently reformatted and everything erased. I believe he said that when the drives are formatted they erase certain files needed to restore.

If all you did was to copy all files on your main drive to a backup drive, the technician is correct. In order to fully restore a drive, you must have first created an image of the drive. The image is then used to restore the main drive.

If you were also copying all files to the backup drive, you probably did not copy the Firefox bookmarks unless you first un-hid the files.

All I did was set up the seagate backup according to the manual. There is a command, 'back up now', and it supposedly backs up all drives.

I did find a mozilla file that may be the bookmarks, finally, by more or less going through the files pursuant to Pat's method. They are under the 'c' drive backup, documents and settings, application date, etc. The file is named 'bookmarkbackups'. The first of 7 files is labeled: bookmarks-2011-4-26.json

So then I wanted to copy them into the same location on the 'c' drive but so far I can't find the same folder. It should be easy but as usual, with ms, nothing is.

If you found the .json file, then you're in business.

If using Firefox 4, click the Firefox button at the top left and then select "Bookmarks". If using an older version of Firefox, simply select Bookmarks>>>Manage Bookmarks from the menu.

In the new window, select "Import and Backup>>>Restore". At the bottom of the list, select "Choose File" and select the location of the .json file.

I have already replaced most of the bookmarks so I am going to just let it be. I'm afraid I will make a mistake and erase newly created bookmarks. Thanks for all you input. I will copy and put in a file for later reference.

I have all your great input into a file.

This does bring up a question though about Seagate. Why isn't it set up to do a restore even when, and maybe esp if, you have to format the 'C' hard drive? It seems to me they could put the necessary files on the back up that would allow you to just click on 'restore' and it's done. That is the case for restoring when the drive has not been formatted. The time when this device would be most useful is when everything on the 'c' drive has been erased. Is there another backup device that is better? I went with Seagate bec it got the best reviews.

There are many different ways to back up a computer, and I am not familiar with what method(s) Seagate's software uses. I can tell you that the best backup is to "image" the hard drive, and then backup the image to another hard drive. In the event of a system failure, the image file rebuilds the system like if nothing ever happened.

My favorite imager is Acronis True Image, but the good news is that Windows 7 already includes an imager. Click the link below to an article by Fred Langa for everything you need to know on creating a good backup using Windows 7:

Windows Secrets - Build a complete Windows 7 safety net

The Seagate I have is the 500gb Free Agent Go, plenty of room for me. It does not say anything anywhere I've looked, manual and net, about creating an 'image'. It only refers to back ups.

I'm wondering if I can use it to go with the Win 7 backup with all 3 options. I looked at this Scuzzy and it looks very interesting. The Seagate tech guy I talked to recommended I format the drive bec it has too many backup folders (3) which I don't know how they got there. Must have been aliens again. So once I'm sure I have retrieved everything I would format it then run the win 7 back ups, imaging, etc, just as the link site goes through?

I  build my own backup drives, and I'm generally not interested in prepackaged solutions by Seagate, Western Digital, etc.

I would format the drive and use it to store images and backups. The method provided by Fred Langa should work well for you. By creating the system restore discs, you'll have everything you need to fully recover from a disaster.
 
I use Acronis True Image, but it can be challenging at times. It looks like Windows 7 alreaddy has everything you need, so I wouldn't spend the extra dough.

Thanks for the tip Scuzzy. As it turned out the seagate had over 387gb of free space anyway. I use the computer mainly for work documents, a couple hundred photos and a few digital camera videos. Not much else, No movies, no games. So I used the available space to run the 3 Win7 programs and there is still over 342gb of space left.

The first backup for data took about 1 1/2 hrs, the imaging and repair disc took only a few minutes. At some point I will format the seagate and start over but I'm not certain I have restored all the documents etc. It's great to get what amounts to a free first class backup from ms with this os since I already had the external drive.

Great! I'm glad that worked out for you.

Now let's hope you never have to use it.

I can do both with as much space as I have but the Seagate apparently doens't do the'image'.

Also, the Win7 backup doesn't allow you to open the backup file to see what is there. It is 'protected' apparently. The Seagate does allow you to open it. The only way I could see if the Win7 worked was to click on 'properties' and see that it contained a lot of gb's.

I'm sorry for the delay in responding, but I've had a hard week at work. Regardless...

Make sure you differentiate between a "backup" and an "image". Generally, files can be backed up to an alternate location, such another hard drive, flash drive, or CD/DVD. An online backup service is also an option, such as Dropbox. Normally you can see/choose/select your backup files in the secondary location(s), unless the program that backed up the files compressed and secured them to a single file.

An image is a snapshot of your hard drive and all of its contents at a given point in time. It is often compressed by as much as 50%. With an image, you will normally just see one very big file. If you have a system or hard drive failure, all you have to do is restore the image and you're back in business.

For simple backing up of files, I strongly recommend that you consider Dropbox (see info here from a previous poast: Dropbox poast)

If by chance you decide to sign up for Dropbox, please do so with this link. The referral will give us both an extra 250MB of free space. Signing up is easy:

1. Click the link and sign up for an account with a valid email address.
2. Download and install the small software on your computer.
3. During the installation, select "I already have an account" and use the account info that you created.

I absolutely love Dropbox and strongly recommend it.

chopin...

This follow-up article by Fred Langa has the answers to viewing and accessing your Windows 7 backup files.

This is weird but I went to dl the Dropbox from your link. I have Threafire running and got 2 messages as the program was dl'ing saying it would be run every time I started and a 2nd saying something I believe about a registry change. The 3rd was too much. It said it was a 'potentially high threat', a more dire warning. I stopped it then.

I also use Threatfire and I get the same 3 warnings whenever I install Dropbox on a new system. The reason for the warnings is that Dropbox is a file sharing program, which is how it works in the first place. Threatfire treats most file sharing programs in the same manner, which is why you get the warnings - to ensure that the user is certain of what is being installed. The warnings depend on the level of sensitivity to which you have Threatfire set.
 
Dropbox is a well known backup solution throughout the world. Although Threatfire's warnings look dire, rest assured that Dropbox is perfectly safe for your computer. For that matter, many new smart phones will begin shipping with the Dropbox application pre-installed. Sony Ericsson just completed a contract with Dropbox, and no doubt many other manufacturers will soon follow.

Threatfire does overreact with Dropbox and it's too bad it's not white listed by default. For each of the 3 Threatfire warnings, select "allow" and "remember this action" (or whatever the wording is) so that you don't continue getting the warnings. You'll have no problems and Dropbox will work properly.
 
EDIT: The only way someone can access your Dropbox files is if you specifically allow it. For example, you must purposely place the file in the "Public" folder and then share the special URL with others. All other files are safe and secure from snoops.

I've been really busy lately and didn't have time to address this. I just installed the dropbox and it appears to be working. This time I didn't get any of the dire warnings, incl the one that says it might me an ied. So it appears to be working. I like the idea since the external hd will eventually die, probably without warning. If this works there will be a backup available. Thanks.

I'm glad it worked out for you.

I've only been using Dropbox for about 7 months, but I find it indispensable. It's amazing what you can get for free these days.