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I am backing up my computer ahead of doing a clean dual boot install of Windows 7 and Linux Mint. Does anyone have an idea how to preserve my bookmarks to move them to the new installations easily? I presume they're stored in a file somewhere that I can copy to my home folder and move back where it belongs after I install linux, but I don't know where it is.

System info:
Currently running Ubuntu 10.04, sole OS
firefox 6

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I'm not sure exactly how to restore them, but I know how to back them up: go to ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/bookmarkbackups – Matt Sep 9 '11 at 15:27
Since they're just files, I should be able to back them up along with everything else under ~ and put them back in later. Put it as an answer and if it works, I'll accept it. – Yitzchak Sep 9 '11 at 15:31
Yes, the bookmark backups can be restored. However, the bookmarks themselves are stored in an internal sqlite3 database - you can explicitly backup these bookmarks either by syncing (FF Sync or an extension like Xmarks) or by initiating an export to HTML. – JW8 Sep 9 '11 at 17:00
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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Back up your whole ~/.mozilla folder. Now that I think of it, I have reinstalled ubuntu with a seperate /home partition. After I reinstalled it, everything was the same, I had all my program data.

Edit: I recommend Google Chrome. Google Chrome can sync your bookmarks, apps, autofill, etc, to your google account, stored in the cloud, and you can restore them easily by signing in. It is also very fast, and lightweight, and stable. www.google.com/chrome

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How do you set up a /home partition? I was going to copy /home/yitzchak to an external drive and then move it back later. – Yitzchak Sep 9 '11 at 15:37
Ok, basically you create a EXT4 or EXT3 partition with a partition manager, say GParted [Should be on the Linux Mint live CD..Mint does have a live CD right?] Then in the linux installation setup, you choose "Custom" partitioning. Then on the partition you created, you set the mount point to /home. That's it, then you install Linux. Then as long as you don't format/overwrite that partition, you will always have your /home files, and you can even use multiple linux installations that use the partition as its home. Another thing you can do is edit /etc/fstab, but that is the harder way – Matt Sep 9 '11 at 15:39
Thanks, this was very helpful, especially the tip about putting/home on a separate partition. – Yitzchak Sep 9 '11 at 15:53
You are welcome. Oh. just one more thing, when you are partitioning your /home, you might as well create one for /. You probably only need a / partition of 5 or 10GB, and your /home can be the rest of the free space. Also, don't forget to set the mountpoint of / to the partition you specifically created for that. :) – Matt Sep 12 '11 at 16:16
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up vote 3 down vote

Since firefox 4 you can use Firefox Sync which allow you to save your bookmarks online to use them on many computers. It could be your solution

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up vote 0 down vote

Your bookmarks are stored in an internal sqlite database since Firefox 3. You should be able to back up your bookmarks in one of several ways:

  • Use Firefox Sync (as Matt noted above)
  • Use an extension such as Xmarks
  • Export the bookmarks as html - Go to Show All Bookmarks, click on the Import and Backup button in the Library dialog box, and select Export to HTML

Hope this helps!

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