Comments on: the case of the disappearing desktop data

Question: the case of the disappearing desktop data

needs more cowbell — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:46:34 -0800

Firefox-Is-On-CrackFilter: I deleted a non-default Firefox profile and things got deleted from my desktop...not just icons, but folders that I was storing there. How do I recover them?

The long story is that my computer got unplugged while it was on, and when I turned it back on, Firefox was screwed up: all of the tweaks I'd made (icons I'd added to the toolbar, any bookmarks--luckily I mostly use del.icio.us--, additional searchbox engines...but not saved passwords, cookies, or extensions) were gone. Not a big deal, but when I re-tweaked everything, the changes disappeared each time I closed and re-opened Firefox.

I made a new Firefox profile to see if the problem would carry over to the new profile. It didn't. I was going to simply set everything up again in the new profile, but then I decided I might as well back up my old profile entirely, uninstall Firefox completely, and reinstall it. I figured that first I'd delete the new profile I'd just made so that I could be 100% sure that the profile I backed up was the (old) one I wanted and not the new one.

When I deleted the new profile (using the firefox profile manager), suddenly anything on my desktop that was actually a file (as opposed to a shortcut) disappeared. These files aren't in the recycle bin and don't show up when I search for them by name in Explorer. It was probably stupid of me to be storing files on the desktop instead of in My Documents, but what can I do to get them back? This seems really bizarre.

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:48:41 -0800

(I'm mainly interested in getting the stuff from my desktop back, but if anyone knows what might have caused the Firefox problem or how to fix that, that would be great, too.)

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 12:51:32 -0800

(also, because I didn't specify: Windows XP Pro)

By: dash_slot-

dash_slot- — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 13:58:05 -0800

Try a system restore?

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:08:37 -0800

I keep system restore disabled because I have a fairly old computer which only takes the ridiculously expensive RDRAM :/ Keeping systems restore off speeds it up.

Oh well. It doesn't look like I'll be able to get the stuff back, but I don't think it was anything vital, fortunately. I guess this is a good kick in the butt to prompt me to back things up.

By: dash_slot-

dash_slot- — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:28:21 -0800

I'd love to know how & why deleting a browser profile - esp. the esteemed Firefox - can result in this.

By: Pinback

Pinback — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:38:27 -0800

... my computer got unplugged while it was on ...
Cross-linked files or directories - the reason his FF profile was corrupt is because some of it was pointing to his WinXP desktop config.

And likely other places too. I'd be checking all the important files - documents, photos, MP3s, porn stash, etc - on that disk.

Lesson #1: In situations like that, do a very careful chkdsk / scandisk first!

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:06:53 -0800

What should I be doing to check those things? Anything besides running chkdsk?

Also, I'm curious--what sorts of things from my FF profile would have been pointing to my desktop configuration? I think my default location to save a file to was the desktop, would it be that sort of thing?

By: needs more cowbell

needs more cowbell — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 15:25:11 -0800

Something else I realized: I actually created two new profiles while I was playing around with Firefox after it got wacky. One of them I put (when I was creating it) on the desktop itself, with the intent that I would be able to easily look at the components of a Firefox profile. (i.e. which folders/files contain passwords, extensions, etc.). The other one I put in the default location.

But--and this is the weird part--the profile that I deleted was the one in the regular default place that Firefox saves profile information--in "application data" or whatever, not the one I'd saved on the desktop. In fact, I actually manually deleted all of the Firefox profile folders from my desktop a few minutes before deleting the other profile using Firefox profile manager, and those manually deleted files were the only ones in the recycle bin. (And I was able to fully restore them.) (Deleting those files manually is not what deleted the other stuff from the desktop.) Strange.

By: IndigoRain

IndigoRain — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 20:51:11 -0800

You might try the Mozillazine forums - the top forum on the list (Firefox support) allows guest posting if you don't want to register.

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 22:21:13 -0800

One of them I put (when I was creating it) on the desktop itself,

That sounds like a terrible idea :P

It also sounds like firefox just assums it is responsible for every file in the profile directory, in this case your desktop..