Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

For windows SP, restarted pc to factory settings and my bookmarks are gone. How to recover.

more options

Microsoft XP PC - restored to factory settings d/t PC performance poor - when I reinstalled to factory settings, all my Bookmards for FireFox were gone (as well as downloads) and no way to use backup or restore as the date is not available. All my emails were still avail. How do I get my Bookmarks back as they must be on the PC somewhere?

Microsoft XP PC - restored to factory settings d/t PC performance poor - when I reinstalled to factory settings, all my Bookmards for FireFox were gone (as well as downloads) and no way to use backup or restore as the date is not available. All my emails were still avail. How do I get my Bookmarks back as they must be on the PC somewhere?

All Replies (1)

more options

On newer versions of Windows, there often is a new folder named:

C:\Windows.old\

which contains your Firefox data. However, I don't know whether a Windows XP recovery/reinstall creates that folder.

When searching around, make sure to unhide hidden files and folders: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/win_fcab_show_file_extensions.mspx

Then check under this path:

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ 

You need to find an additional folder here, since the currently active one does not have your old data

If you do not quickly find your Firefox data, stop all work on the computer and try an unerase utility such as the following: https://www.piriform.com/recuva -- the more you use the computer, the less likely this kind of software will recover intact files.