On my old drive, I have two, one under My Name, the other under Admin - the latter has not been updated since 2004 !!!!!

On my new drive, I have three, the same two as above, plus one My Name.ADMIN-1234567.

Posts crossed again. It is a while since I have used XP but it appears you have two admin accounts.

1. The default one set up by XP that will use default.th5
2. A second one you are representing as My Name.ADMIN-1234567 which presumably is also an admin account
   • that then has two profiles that you may choose from the profile manager one is default the other is My Name

If you start up the first admin account it should run Firefox with the original bookmarks and passwords. As I mentioned earlier if you run Firefox and use the troubleshooting option that gives an option to open the active profile folder and confirm what you re using.

Just a word of warning do NOT try exporting and importing bookmarks until you have properly backed up the existing bookmarks because they overwrite and it is easy to loose the ones you want.

• Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer

Put any backups somewhere safe outside Firefox program and profile paths, the Desktop is ok.

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1

[Profile0] 
Name=default 
IsRelative=1 
Path=Profiles/default.th5

located in

C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

You can't have StartWithLastProfile=1 when there is only [Profile0] in the profiles.ini file.

The reason I requested a screenshot is the make sure the formatting of profiles.ini is correct. What you posted isn't correct, maybe because this forum software doesn't observe 'normal' line breaks.

Not sure how to proceed here. I think I can't get into the original Admin account, as that is on the drive that will not boot. How about I delete the entire profile folder from my new drive, and copy the one from my old drive ?

How about fixing the profiles.ini file that's seems to be screwed up?

You can copy a profile over and over again, but if Firefox isn't 'pointed' to the correct profile - StartWithLastProfile=0 - it ain't gonna work.

I apologise for seeming dim here......not quite sure what you are suggesting I do.....

OK, something is not right here. I set my PROFILES.INI as follows

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=0

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/default.th5
Default=1

Under the PROFILES folder there is a Default.th5 folder, with several sub-folders. Yet when I start FF, and use Troubleshoot on the ShowFolder function, it says

C:\Documents and Settings\My Name.ADMIN-BE96894BB\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\1spk7blw.default

What am I doing wrong that it is not using my old bookmarks ? Under the Profiles folder, there is both a default.th5 (one level deeper than the earlier one), and an es6w4x4f.default folder, both with multiple sub folders. Is it safe to delete the es6w4x4f.default folder entirely ?

the-edmeister is saying you should have the profiles.ini file with the line value 1.
StartWithLastProfile=1 not =0
However when I try single profiles on Windows7 or using Ubuntu canonical & mozilla builds of Firefox on mine they are all starting up ok whether I use =1 or =0

I am not sure I understand what you trying to tell us, but above /questions/967232#answer-466305 you posted

Here is my current file, now that I have changed it

[General] StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0] Name=default IsRelative=1 Path=Profiles/default.th5
located in
C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

• Are those details from the current computer ?

If so you should be able to use that default admin account. If necessary try in Windows safe mode, presumably that defaults to the admin account.

• http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/boot_failsafe.mspx

As I mentioned earlier maybe it is actually better to do day-to-day work from another account that is not an admin account

• see also http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/windows_security_whynot_admin.mspx

Better still create a new user account that is not an admin account. Then copy the original profile and the original profiles.ini over to it. In fact it would be marginally safer to copy over only the bookmarks files, & folders & places.sqlite (That is the bookmarks database ). Then also copy over the two password files: key3.db & signons.sqlite

Whatever you are doing check with the troubleshooting page to see what profile you are actually using

• use Help -> Troubleshooting Information -> [Show Folder]
• see Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues

So how do I change the profile that FF uses, once I see what Troubleshooter says ? It is not correct, and I am still not clear on where it is coming from. To clarify a point, both the old disk and the new disk are in the same PC. That way I can copy the files across easily. The second one is in a Startech external enclosure (USB).

The profile manager allows you to choose the profile thatyou are to use. The profile manager also allows you to create profiles, and will itself modify the profiles.ini file.

In this case you are still likely to have to physically copy your old profile or at least part of the old profile.

Alternatives Note however you probably could merely

• import the bookmarks from the old profile.
• overwrite the two password files

OK, where do I get the profile manager ?

Not to sound like I'm beating a dead horse, but why can't you provide screenshots instead of doing a copy'n'paste of the information?

I asked for a screenshot showing the 'path' to the Proifle folder to make sure you're dealing with the profiles.ini file respective to the appropriate Windows user account. Based upon your posting of 11:39 am (Sunday /11) it sounds like you're dealing with two separate Windows accounts, and that default.th5 Profile is in both C:\Documents and Settings\My Name.ADMIN-BE96894BB\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\ and C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox

IMO, you are missing the subtleties of Windows user account folders and the how they are related to the profiles.ini file and the \Profiles\ folders.

My suggestion is to forget about playing with Profiles, profile names, and the multiple profiles.ini files (one for each Windows user account) and "recover" your original data to the Firefox Profile that is now working - 1spk7blw.default . That is what Phillip recommended on 8/7 in the first response in this thread by following this support article - Recovering important data from an old profile Concentrate on copying over (and replacing) the places.sqlite file for your bookmarks / history, and both the key3.db and signons.sqlite files for your saved passwords - and maybe the permissions.sqlite with your per-site permissions.

Trying to "fix" user created problems such as this isn't easy, even when the person asking for help provides the requested information - but we seem to be going in circles in this thread and not getting accurate information. For that reason this is (probably) my last posting in this thread. I usually enjoy challenges such as this, but the lack of cooperation here puts a definite buzz on that enjoyment.

Sorry for the late response, but I was finally able to get my Firefox working. It was very simple. I copied the Profiles folder from the old drive to the new one, and presto, it all works again. The late response was due to the fact that my Thunderbird is now not working, and I could not use the link in the various emails that opened this forum question. I had to find it manually. Thanks VERY much to all those who offered suggestions. Losing my bookmarks and passwords was extremely painful. I will now look at doing some sort of a backup in case I lose the data again sometime. And now, on to recovering my Thunderbird !

Glad it is fixed at last.

Note bookmarks may be backed up manually. It is probably a good idea to keep them somewhere safe outside of Firefox or profile paths, and maybe also on removable media or a 2nd disk.

• Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer
• a 2nd device may be used as a backup, possibly by using sync
  How do I choose what information to sync on Firefox?
  How do I set up Sync on my computer?
• or using an extension or utility https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/febe/

DO NOT DELETE PROFILES
Do take care with your profiles, they sound to be rather messed up. Note in particular that if deleting with profile manager that the whole folder is taken out. If your folders are nested or with other content you may find more than is expected gets deleted.
Also take care if you rename profiles, because the profile manager does not actually rename the folder only the profiles.ini entry used to display the name.

I imagine that your original hard disk could come in useful. Once any important data has been removed it could be reformatted and used for backups. Do however bear in mind that if it has been faulty or heavily used it may not now be reliable.

I seem to have annoyed some for not posting screen shots. There were a lot of crossing posts, and I did not focus on that. Firefox seems to work now, with all my bookmarks and most of the passwords OK. Now my problem is to get ThunderBird to load the old, saved email and addresses. I will raise that question in the TB forum. Again, thanks to all. If there is one lesson here for me, I have been using PC's since DOS, and up until now, never had a need to Backup/Restore. I would still not need one, except I gave my machine to a remote analysis company to see if they could "speed up XP Pro". Somehow they managed to install the black screen of death, and despite many tries to fix that, it eventually would not even boot in safe mode. That drive is now a second, external drive while I try to get all my environment working again.

I have used computers even before DOS and still occasionally need reminding that more backups make sense. But I once lost a lot of data and on another occasion in the 80s I saw a company grind to a halt after the system went down without backups. Generally after a bad experience we remember backups are essential.

Had you made relevant backups of the XP system you would not have needed the remote help. You could have reformatted and reinstalled the OS other programs & data from scratch.
A tip if using XP and able to understand dos: make sure you have the recovery console installed. (&/Or have a Linux system bootable from removable media if you also understand that)

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

You could have demonstrated your file paths by redirecting and appending DIR output to a text file, but generally it is far easier for most people to just use relevant screenshots. the-edmeister will also have been using computers a long time but realises that sometimes a screenshot is worth a thousand words.

I still think it may have been wise to use a non admin account for day-to-day Firefox, and a new account may give you an opportunity to sort out; at least in that account; the Firefox profile so that you have one simple profile not a nested mess.

The important thing is that you got there in the end and Firefox is working again.

Good luck with sorting out Thunderbird.

• https://support.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/home

To clarify, the remote "help" was what caused the problem in the first place. A backup is certainly valuable, but my machine was working well until I engaged the remote support. I doubt I will ever allow that again. I have refrained from mentioning the company name, because I think that will only cause me trouble.

Note that you can register existing profiles that aren't listed in the profiles.ini and thus also do not show in the Profile Manager.
To do that you create a new profile in the Profile Manager and click the Choose Folder button and browse to an existing profile folder to select that profile.
Firefox will recognize that this is a profile and use it.

If the profile that is opened via the troubleshooting page isn't listed in profiles.ini then likely something has gone wrong with creating a new profile (possibly your security software decided to protect this .ini file against changes).

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Recovering_a_missing_profile