Journal #7958
Posted 11 years ago2012-09-02 02:08:43 UTC
I am back in Windows. After some testing I'm guessing my main hard drive got a few bad sectors that happened to directly affect the Windows boot files. I formatted the affected partition and reinstalled Windows and I'm back where I was before all this happened.
I have a lot of junk to install now, but by blindly copying some folders (not knowing it would work) I managed to backup and restore all my browser settings including history and all my mail was seamlessly inserted back into Thunderbird.
The only thing I forgot to copy was the "My pictures" folder in My Documents but it was 99% junk images so I don't really care. Very little was lost, if anything.
So, to anyone that happens to be interested, here are the folders you have to copy if you are locked out of your system and can't make a proper backup:
Firefox, including all bookmarks and history:
C:Documents and Settings<yourname>Application DataMozilla
Thunderbird, including all mail, plugins and settings:
C:Documents and Settings<yourname>Application DataThunderbird
Just copy these folders and replace them into your new Windows installation (after these programs are already installed) and everything will be exactly as you left it, as if nothing had ever happened.
I have a lot of junk to install now, but by blindly copying some folders (not knowing it would work) I managed to backup and restore all my browser settings including history and all my mail was seamlessly inserted back into Thunderbird.
The only thing I forgot to copy was the "My pictures" folder in My Documents but it was 99% junk images so I don't really care. Very little was lost, if anything.
So, to anyone that happens to be interested, here are the folders you have to copy if you are locked out of your system and can't make a proper backup:
Firefox, including all bookmarks and history:
C:Documents and Settings<yourname>Application DataMozilla
Thunderbird, including all mail, plugins and settings:
C:Documents and Settings<yourname>Application DataThunderbird
Just copy these folders and replace them into your new Windows installation (after these programs are already installed) and everything will be exactly as you left it, as if nothing had ever happened.
9 Comments
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Btw, Thunderbird can manage more than one email accounts? And provide notifications on the desktop?
striker: interesting. is it a virtual machine type thingie, so you can do complete/clean uninstall of any program you install with ninite?
Ninite automatically says "No" to toolbars and other junk.
Which reminded me that I installed Yahoo Messenger and despite deselecting the "Yahoo browser toolbar" (or whatever) I found it on Firefox right after installation was done. Had to manually deactivate and uninstall it. I hate that shit.
As for thunderbird, yes it can manage as many email accounts as you want. Each one with their own inbox and folders and sorting rules, and it has an optional popup notification on new mail.
But when i think about it im on a hair pin and if my drive fails i will lose all my shit
As for any "bookmarks" i have a text file where i store all my important addresses and its on all my flash drives