Lately, using the Mozilla Firefox website browser has become a great pain, as the bookmarks are mysteriously missing after certain reboots of Windows XP. It seems this began occurring after upgrading to Mozilla Firefox 2.

The first time this occurred, I lost several thousand well-categorized website bookmarks and real simple syndication (RSS) feeds that were develop over the span of a three-year period. These bookmarks were a key to working quickly and monitoring key aspects of business operations I'm engaged in, including media, web design, search engine optimization, off-road motorsports, racing, automotive manufacturing, marketing, writing and photography amid many other categories.

Immediately after the first loss of my web bookmarks, I considered what was once considered the most detestable action, using Internet Explorer (IE) 7. After only five minutes, my brief bout with IE brought me to the realization that, even after all these years, IE is pathetic for its lack of functionality, its lack of speed and its issues viewing certain sites. As web designers and developers say, design a website for Firefox and then hack the website for Internet Explorer. It simply sucks.

Anyhow, the loss of my bookmarks occurred several more times. In between a few web design and copy writing deadlines, I began development of a logical directory structure for my new series of bookmarks. As the week passed, it was looking good. Simultaneously, I attempted to find fixes, locate any bookmark backups and find solutions to prevent the data loss from occurring again. Once my time was clear and the deadlines met, my efforts became more vigorous, and I performed a complete search for the backup files and also performed some research  on a fix. I ultimately found both.

First, here's where my Microsoft Windows XP user profiles listed below. Keep in mind, you may inadvertently be looking in the wrong user profile, if you are unable to find your backup. Likewise, your computer file browser may be setup to limit access to certain files and folders, including the "Application Data" directory, as mine was. Either way, simply perform a search on your "C" drive for "bookmarkbackups." Therein will be your bookmarks. Drag those bookmark backups to an easy-to-find location on your "C" drive, such as "C:\" or a similar easy-to-find folder. You'll be using it later.

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

While there are numerous ways to backup your computer hard drive as well as your Mozilla Firefox, including such solutions as MozBackup, which performs bookmarks backups as well as bookmarks restores from backups. More information can be found upon the following web pages:

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/MozBackup
• http://mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/
  

I downloaded the software program, installed it and spent about five minutes trying to figure out how to use the program and trying to access the software's requested .pcv bookmarks backup file. I decided not to waste anymore time, since, as usual, was in a hurry to finish the next project on the hot list of priorities. Amid the two top priorities were submitting proposals to one top retailer / distributor of off-road parts for trucks and buggies and a manufacturer of performance automotive parts. 

To manually backup and import (restore) bookmarks from Mozilla Firefox, open up your Mozilla Firefox web browser.  On the top drow down menu, go to "Bookmarks" and drop down to "Organize Bookmarks." A new window will pop up, where you can manage your bookmarks. Here's where you will enlist the bookmark backups you saved to your "C:\" drive or other easy-to-find folder referenced earlier. Go to the top of the manage bookmarks popup window. Select the "File" drop down menu and go to import. Select on of the latest files and import. You're done. Your bookmarks and Sage Add On Feeds are back in business.

Now, be sure to backup often. I perform a complete backup of everything to DVD once per month. And since web hosting companies such as GoDaddy is so inexpensive and provides so much server space, I also maintain a secure working backup on my hosting account. About the only thing that isn't backed up on the GoDaddy hosting account are event photos, since at 2MB-plus per image, it would take me forever. So, I only backup photos I am currently working with to design websites or for other graphics such as flyers, newsletters and product catalogs. Anyhow, I have also begun backing up my bookmarks upon this server.

The next time, I'll write a quick note on how I also import my bookmarks into a Joomla content management system component (CMS) named bookmarks, which is an excellent tool that I use on a private Joomla CMS install to manage and share my bookmarks. This Joomla CMS install is used as a portal for contractors and colleagues with whom I must maintain certain communications. Until then. . .