RESOLVED: All My Bookmarks Missing From Netscape 7.2

Hello, I hope someone can help me.

I use Windows XP, my browser is Netscape 7.2 and my computer is a Dell. I shut down around 6pm as usual for dinner and signed back on at 9pm tonight. When I opened my Netscape Browser, I immediately saw all my bookmarks were missing and I have hundreds of them. The only thing I know I did was shut down the computer by accident while running my Norton 2006 AntiVirus Scan. BUT I would not think that would wipe out my bookmarks. If its means anything, I installed Norton Internet Security 2006 this past week which included AntiVirus as part of the package.

I did a file search for bookmarks and there is a file dated today but it is completely blank. The next bookmark file there is full and dated 10/18/05.

Is there any way to retrieve my bookmarks? I figure Ramona or someone else on this board can give me some sage advice. My thoughts are to either use "System Restore" and set the entire computer back two days or somehow transfer the older file of bookmarks into my Netscape profile.

My preference would be to restore the complete bookmark file without doing either of the above but I will do what needs to be done.

Thanks in advance,
Larry

 

IF you shut down your computer Not the proper way Yea You Will lose information. But Bookmarks....Not quite sure... Maybe Try System Restore?

 

I logged out in the proper manner but as I said, forgot that Norton AntiVirus was running a system scan when I did so. I don't believe THAT would have caused the bookmarks to disappear....

Larry

 

Ah Larry Sorry Must Of read your post wrong. Im not sure at that. Someone On the forum Will help you

 

Larry,

When you restarted your PC did ScanDisk run, or did you get any type of message that Windows wasn't shut down properly?

Netscape 7 is particularly fallible to this type of loss of Profile data, and can also lose the entire Profile. Even tho you didn't have a crash, the fact that a program was running when you shut down can create a problem. That is still an improper shutdown, as all programs should be closed first. My thoughts are that your Bookmarks are hosed!

If you make frequent backups of your Profile folder, you can copy your backup of the bookmarks.html file to the *.slt folder. If you don't have a backup, other than the outdated one, then you will most likely have to resort to using it. Particularly if you have done a "Find" for bookmarks.html.

What you need to double check is if Netscape created a new Profile. Ensure that there is only one profile, the original, and not a newly created Profile.

Netscape is now defunct, and will not be upgraded. It has security vulnerabilities, and many bugs, including the loss of Bookmarks. A move to either SeaMonkey (if you prefer the suite with Mail, Newsgroups, and Composer) or Firefox and Thunderbird (which are two separate applications, Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client) should be taken under serious consideration.

 

Ramona,
When I restarted the PC, everything went as normal and no error messages popped up anytime during start-up. The ONLY thing I know I did wrong was accidentally log out while the Norton AntiVirus Scan was running.

Working under the assumption that my bookmarks are hosed as you said, I imported the earlier version of the Bookmarks file into my browser.

Sometime this week, I will look into switching to Firefox or SeaMonkey, the latter I'm not familiar with.

I don't make any back-up files, I know, stupid, but my computer savvy is limited. I really should get a external hard-drive to back it up on a regular basis. If I'd done that, would the bookmarks be retrievable?

Larry

 

Larry,

Don't beat yourself up, as this is a common omission with inexperienced users. Yes, you would have been able to retrieve the Bookmarks, if you had a backup. It really isn't necessary to buy an additional HDD for backing up your Profiles folder. I have a guideline for Preventive Browser Maintenance which includes backing up your Profile (which includes Bookmarks). You might note that it is a "Sticky" at the top of the list of Topics on the Forum.

Firefox is a standalone browser, meaning no mail client, and no composer.

Thunderbird is the companion mail client, and very secure and stable.

SeaMonkey is very similar to Netscape in that it is a suite, including the mail client and composer. It is a huge improvement over Netscape 7.x. My personal preference is Firefox and Thunderbird, as they are the focus of Mozilla.

 

Ramona, I'm not beating myself up. I just wish I knew why this problem with the disappearing bookmarks happens. I bookmarked your guidelines for Preventive Browser Maintenence and will follow them in the future.

Firefox and Thunderbird look like my choice for a new set-up.

Thanks for your help.

Larry

 

Did you try System Restore?

 

No, I don't want to re-set the entiire PC just to retrieve the bookmarks at this point.

 

This is one of the many bugs in Netscape 7. Bookmarks become intermittently corrupt, and revert to the default. There are so many bug reports on Bookmarks beings lost/disappearing I couldn't begin to list them all. That's one of the reasons I am urging users to stop using Netscape 7. The newer browsers (Firefox and SeaMonkey) have fixes for all the bugs in Netscape 7 and earlier versions of Mozilla...

 

Firefox does daily backups of the bookmarks.html file (up to five days), while Seamonkey has a daily backup. I used to do very frequent backups when I had Netscape7.2. Of course, I never had any problems.

 

Thanks to Ramona and everyone for their comments.

I think we can call this thread of mine closed.

Firefox, here I come!

Larry