How can I replace a *.default profile with a new one?
I had several problems with a laptop being infected with malware. As a result FireFox would not open and thus I couldn't export the bookmarks before reformating the drive. Before reformatting the drive I copied the FireFox files in user/appdata/mozilla/firefox/ both the Local and Roaming subfolders to another drive. I installed FF 4 after the reformat, replaced the *.default files in the new profile with those I saved from the old installation and got the error message " . . all ready running."
All Replies (4)
Delete the parent.lock file, if it exists in that Profile.
It sounds like the profile was "locked" from before, because Firefox wasn't starting or shutting down properly, however you shouldn't just copy the profile over and use it again if it came from a malware infected system, because the Firefox profile is one of the places where malware can infect. Instead please see Recovering important data from an old profile for information about how to get your data back from an old profile - copying just the data you need, such as the bookmarks is safer then copying the whole profile.
Re: the-edmeister's post : This will work, but be careful doing it in case the malware added a harmful extension to your profile.
Modified by Stephanie Daugherty
Friends, Thanks for your responses. They gave me some encouragement. After posting my question I found the laptop owner had backed up her FireFox Bookmarks and thus I was able to use the FF Bookmark Restore feature to import them.
I appreciate you taking the time to write your suggestions.