How to retrieve bookmarks from a dead computer.
My computer crashed and it had several valuable bookmarks. I used Firefox OS. I now have a new computer and use Firefox OS. Can I retrieve the bookmarks from the dead computer and store them on the new one?
Vahaolana nofidina
How dead is it? What I mean by that is, does the hard drive still work? If your new computer is a desktop PC, usually it will have space to install the old hard drive as a second (slave) drive, which you can address as, say, the E drive to extract your old data. If your new computer is a laptop, often you can use a USB drive caddy or connector to attach your old hard drive as external storage to extract your old data.
The mechanics of attaching old hard drives would be better addressed by another forum. Your data would be located in your old profile folder, the location of which depends on the operating system on that old computer. You may need to turn off Windows' default behavior of hiding important folders in order to track it down.
Then when you find the bookmarkbackups folder, you can restore one of those backups. (Note that this will replace any bookmarks you may have added on your new computer. If you want to save those, export them first to HTML format, then do the restore, them import the HTML file you created, then clean up the organization.)
The following articles cover these various points:
- Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data
- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files
- Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
- Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks
- Import Bookmarks from an HTML file
All Replies (7)
if you had a Mozilla account and you have synced it once, you may have a chance. If you haven't on your old computer, you would be wishing it didn't die (you can't get it). Good Luck, Mitch!
Did you SYNC your Bookmarks with Firefox SYNC?
Firefox Saves everything under the Firefox Profile, Retrieve everything from the profile
Vahaolana Nofidina
How dead is it? What I mean by that is, does the hard drive still work? If your new computer is a desktop PC, usually it will have space to install the old hard drive as a second (slave) drive, which you can address as, say, the E drive to extract your old data. If your new computer is a laptop, often you can use a USB drive caddy or connector to attach your old hard drive as external storage to extract your old data.
The mechanics of attaching old hard drives would be better addressed by another forum. Your data would be located in your old profile folder, the location of which depends on the operating system on that old computer. You may need to turn off Windows' default behavior of hiding important folders in order to track it down.
Then when you find the bookmarkbackups folder, you can restore one of those backups. (Note that this will replace any bookmarks you may have added on your new computer. If you want to save those, export them first to HTML format, then do the restore, them import the HTML file you created, then clean up the organization.)
The following articles cover these various points:
- Profiles - Where Firefox stores your bookmarks, passwords and other user data
- http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files
- Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
- Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks
- Import Bookmarks from an HTML file
mff4rgs,
Is your support question about the Firefox Operating System as you stated?
Or about the Firefox web browser?
I meant web browser, not operating system. Thanks
I did remove the hard drive from the dead computer, because I wanted to download files to my new computer. I didn't know I could do the same for my old bookmarks.
No, unfortunately. But another contributor suggested I could connect the hard drive from the old computer to my new one and recover my bookmarks the same way I plan on downloading old files.