Mistakenly Deleted My Mozilla Default Profile Folder (the only one) Any Hope?

Devon7 · 07-19-2008, 12:10 AM

I Mistakenly Deleted My Mozilla Default Profile Folder (the only one) - I was following someone else's advise regarding a different Mozilla issue in which they said by doing this it would go away, and everyone else had thanked him, so I trusted it, but I didn't back up my bookmarks at the time. It asked me if I was sure that I wanted to delete my profile folder and that it couldn't be undone, but I did - My major bad :(
It happened 11 days ago and I haven't used my computer very much, but have tried using 3 different Data Recovery Software Programs. It still hasn't found and recovered the actual Mozilla Default Profile Folder with all my original bookmarks. I have tried several other routes but no can do. Yesterday, I switched back to Mozilla 2.0, and now in the profiles section there are 3 folders, and one is called wp16zhbp.Default User, but there is no bookmarks.html in there; Yet, it's 212 KB (I think that would be about the size of all my original bookmarks), and it said it was created on July 7th at 3:44 pm, which I believe was around the actual time that I accidentally deleted it. There are also 2 other folders in the Profiles section, and one of them does have a bookmarks.html, but it's new, and not the original one. So far, I have recovered several times what I have thought was my original default profile folder, and have saved them in the other different drives but of course not C drive, and so far, non of them are it.

Maybe the most important question is: Is it even possible at all to recover a deleted Mozilla profile folder with all original bookmarks? (because it told me it could not be undone) Does anybody know if it's even possible to recover, and if so, then how? I mean, even though it said it can't be undone, hopefully it still could be, but just might take a more complex approach perhaps. Just knowing either way would save me from waisting anymore time trying to figure this out. I am very grateful for any answers or suggestions, thank you so much.

Devon

**sobeit** · 07-20-2008, 01:42 PM

do a search on your computer for the file bookmarks.htm or bookmarks.html . Hopefully one of them would be it.

Devon7 · 07-25-2008, 02:49 AM

In my C drive, I have just come across profile folders all ending in .default. Inside one of them I see a places.sqlite (oddly though, this is in my C drive, which I didn't recover anything into) But, it says it's 940 KB (which I think would be around the right size of everything that got deleted within my Mozilla default profile folder) It said that it was created on July 5, 2008 at 9:18:43 PM, and was modified on July 7, 2008, 2:07:02 PM (The 7th was when I accidentally deleted my Mozilla default profile folder, and it was early afternoon) I was using Mozilla 3.0 when I deleted it, but a week after that, I switched back to Mozilla 2.0 (to see if my original bookmarks would come back) and am still on it. Do I need to uninstall Mozilla 2.0, and switch back to Mozilla 3.0 to try and restore it, to see if it's the original bookmarks/profile?
Also, for some reason, a bookmarkbackups or bookmarks.json are in one of the other 2 different .default folders, but are not the original bookmarks, and have hardly any KB in them. So should I go ahead and try to restore the places.sqlite that I found in my C drive? How would I do this? Again, should I switch back to Mozilla 3.0 to do this? Thank you so, so much for your help, and I hope I'm on the right track.

07-19-2008, 12:10 AM	#1 (permalink)
Devon7 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: North Vancouver Posts: 2 OS: xp	Mistakenly Deleted My Mozilla Default Profile Folder (the only one) Any Hope? I Mistakenly Deleted My Mozilla Default Profile Folder (the only one) - I was following someone else's advise regarding a different Mozilla issue in which they said by doing this it would go away, and everyone else had thanked him, so I trusted it, but I didn't back up my bookmarks at the time. It asked me if I was sure that I wanted to delete my profile folder and that it couldn't be undone, but I did - My major bad :( It happened 11 days ago and I haven't used my computer very much, but have tried using 3 different Data Recovery Software Programs. It still hasn't found and recovered the actual Mozilla Default Profile Folder with all my original bookmarks. I have tried several other routes but no can do. Yesterday, I switched back to Mozilla 2.0, and now in the profiles section there are 3 folders, and one is called wp16zhbp.Default User, but there is no bookmarks.html in there; Yet, it's 212 KB (I think that would be about the size of all my original bookmarks), and it said it was created on July 7th at 3:44 pm, which I believe was around the actual time that I accidentally deleted it. There are also 2 other folders in the Profiles section, and one of them does have a bookmarks.html, but it's new, and not the original one. So far, I have recovered several times what I have thought was my original default profile folder, and have saved them in the other different drives but of course not C drive, and so far, non of them are it. Maybe the most important question is: Is it even possible at all to recover a deleted Mozilla profile folder with all original bookmarks? (because it told me it could not be undone) Does anybody know if it's even possible to recover, and if so, then how? I mean, even though it said it can't be undone, hopefully it still could be, but just might take a more complex approach perhaps. Just knowing either way would save me from waisting anymore time trying to figure this out. I am very grateful for any answers or suggestions, thank you so much. Devon

07-20-2008, 01:42 PM	#2 (permalink)
sobeit TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: NEAR Posts: 5,410 OS: windows/linux	Re: Mistakenly Deleted My Mozilla Default Profile Folder (the only one) Any Hope? do a search on your computer for the file bookmarks.htm or bookmarks.html . Hopefully one of them would be it. __________________ Do not feed the trolls.

07-25-2008, 02:49 AM	#3 (permalink)
Devon7 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: North Vancouver Posts: 2 OS: xp	Re: Mistakenly Deleted My Mozilla Default Profile Folder (the only one) Any Hope? In my C drive, I have just come across profile folders all ending in .default. Inside one of them I see a places.sqlite (oddly though, this is in my C drive, which I didn't recover anything into) But, it says it's 940 KB (which I think would be around the right size of everything that got deleted within my Mozilla default profile folder) It said that it was created on July 5, 2008 at 9:18:43 PM, and was modified on July 7, 2008, 2:07:02 PM (The 7th was when I accidentally deleted my Mozilla default profile folder, and it was early afternoon) I was using Mozilla 3.0 when I deleted it, but a week after that, I switched back to Mozilla 2.0 (to see if my original bookmarks would come back) and am still on it. Do I need to uninstall Mozilla 2.0, and switch back to Mozilla 3.0 to try and restore it, to see if it's the original bookmarks/profile? Also, for some reason, a bookmarkbackups or bookmarks.json are in one of the other 2 different .default folders, but are not the original bookmarks, and have hardly any KB in them. So should I go ahead and try to restore the places.sqlite that I found in my C drive? How would I do this? Again, should I switch back to Mozilla 3.0 to do this? Thank you so, so much for your help, and I hope I'm on the right track.