Lost all bookmarks in my user profile after latest microsoft windows update on 5/15/15
Last night at 2am when I went to hibernate my computer as I usually do, I saw that there were some automatic windows updates to be installed. Since I have Windows XP and Microsoft has supposedly ceased support, I cancelled the hibernation and got on the internet to make sure that Microsoft was pushing out these updates and what they were for. Everything seemed kosher so I closed the internet and all of my programs, and proceeded to shut down the computer allowing the updates to install.
Much to my chagrin this morning, I discovered that my user profile had essentially been wiped out. The user profile name was still there and the password still worked, but when I got in the whole profile had been restored to its initial settings. Most of my files that I had on the desktop are gone and when I launched FireFox, it had been reverted to its originally downloaded version (years ago) and all of my many, many bookmarks were gone. I did find some files in My Documents, but the bulk of the documents were not under my documents and appear to be gone.
I did find some files in a TEMP folder and saved all of those. Fortunately I did back up my computer about a month ago, but stupidly did not back up my bookmarks. I do have a back up from a couple of years ago that I can retrieve, but everything since then appears to be gone. There are many files in the TEMP file that I cannot identify and am hoping and praying that my bookmarks are still in the midst of them. I did a search for Mozilla FireFox profiles through my dos prompt, but it only found a default profile that is likely associated with my admin user account that I generally do not work on for security purposes.
I have searched all day on the internet for solutions with no luck. I would be most appreciative if anyone can provide some guidance that may be of help.
Signed,
Totally Mystified and ticked off at Microsoft
All Replies (6)
Sorry meant 5/15/14. As you can see I am completely frazzled at this point. :(
Hello,
paste the following in the Start menu search box and press Enter:
%APPDATA%
This should open the hidden folder
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\
Do you see any Mozilla folder there? If so, look inside for Firefox\Profiles to see whether your old profile folder might still be there.
Recover lost or missing Bookmarks
Restore bookmarks, passwords and data from an old Firefox profile
On Windows XP this would be :
- C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile>\
- http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder_-_Firefox
You are sure that you are still using the same Windows user account and haven't switch by accident to another (older) Windows account?
Thank you for your response. I have read and tried all of the recommendations. I did find the profile in the hidden files. However I am still not able to successfully re-establish the information in the new profile. Since "Windows cannot find the local profile" and was "logging [me] on with a temporary profile" I created a new user account. I tried in vain to navigate to that profile through Firefox and had no success when I copied the files into the new profile either. The old profile is not in neat orderly compact files like the new profile, but rather broken into many, many sub files. This is likely part of the problem.
I am pretty resigned at this point. I haven't given up completely, but do have to move on. I survived Hurricane Katrina and I can survive this too. :)
I tried a System Restore a couple of times to two different restore points, but both of those failed. I am fortunate that I have the bulk of my files. I will miss my bookmarks, but will just build anew. I am looking into possibly changing over the Linux, although new territory can be scary.
Thanks again for your input.
Thank you for the information. Yes, I only had two user accounts on my computer at the time. My admin account which I rarely work through for security purposes, only logging onto it to do updates and downloads that require admin rights. Otherwise, I used the only other profile created on the PC religiously.
I am sure Microsoft is not the sole cause of the problem, but it was the impetus. No doubt a sign of things to come for my computer. C'est la vie!
Make sure to copy the profiles.ini as well if you copied the xxxxxxxx.default folder from that old Windows account.
Modified by cor-el