[Rictor]

Apparently, my brother re-installed Firefox (or downloaded a newer version). So now all my favourites are gone, as are my custom toolbar folders and other stuff. I'm assuming (or rather, hoping) that this is all safely cached somewhere, and that there is a way to easily retrieve it. Except that I wouldn't know how to go about doing this.

So.....yeah.

[achtung]

He must've uninstalled it first otherwise it would all still be there.  I don't believe your gonna get your stuff back if it hasn't already shown up.

[Nix]

Firefox stores things in profiles, so if say, RC3 took over your old 1.0.7 install of Firefox, you might have your old stuff in the old profile folder.  That folder is located at
(I'm assuming C is your install drive for Windows, and you're running 2000 or higher)
C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\[CURRENT USERNAME USED TO LOG IN]\APPLICATION DATA\MOZILLA\FIREFOX\PROFILES
After that folder, you'll have some randomized characters for the names of the folders.  Inside that folder, is where the bookmarks.htm is stored, along with the cache and pretty much anything that has to do with the browser is stored.  Current username could possibly be the administrator account or All Users folder, though it's more likely under the username you've logged into windows with.
That might get you somewhere. 

[Rictor]

I looked in there, and the bookmarks .html file is just my current one (that is to say, none). Or rather, just the BBC RSS feed, which I tried to bookmark. The odd thing is, though, that for example saved passwords are working fine. I don't know what version I had before, but right now it's 1.04. The interface theme changed back top the default, but I still had my old one (Plastikfox) right there in the Themes menu. My old Extensions were  working fine, as if nothing had happened.

Strange, that. How is it possible that it retained some aspects (Extensions, Passwords) and discarded others (Bookmarks, toolbar folders)? I'll try posting in the FF forums.

[Rictor]

Quick question for you guys:

It's been about 2 or 3 days since the bookmarksdisappeared. Neither me nor by brother did anything, Firefox seems to have reset of it's own accord. The Mozilla help section says I should try an undelete program. After 3 days, is that even worth it? I don't know much about undelete, so that's why I'm asking if there is a reasonable chance it would work after so long.

[Flipside]

Should do, it depends how much action the HD has seen and whether that particular segment of the directory has been overwritten. Chances are pretty high that it will work though. A program used to be marked as deleted simply by changing the first letter of the name to a code, not sure if that's how it's still done though.

[Nix]

Here's a suggestion, if you're running Windows XP, run a system restore to the point BEFORE you noticed the changes.  Then, once that is done, acquire your bookmarks, everything you need, if it's still there that is, and put them on some sort of removable storage.  A flash drive, floppy drive, burn it, whatever you gotta do.  Then reverse your System Restore and you'll be back to your current configuration.  The reason why I say to move the files out of the system is that SysRestore has a sneaky tendency to remove certain new files copied on the system.  Reversing the system restore will get you back to the present though, and everything will be intact.  Then just inject your files in the correct places and you should have your stuff back. 

Of course, you'll need to have System Restore turned on and on the drive you installed Firefox to.  If you're not running System Restore, then you'll be better off looking for a program called "Restoration".  It will scan NTFS recently deleted files, and possibly help recover them.  It's a bit old, but it's the best FREE file-recovery tool I've ever used.

Something else to consider.  If your bookmarks.htm file was overwritten, not deleted and re-created, there's probably no hope of getting it back unless you have System Restore on and at the ready.