I have lost the list of a vast number of links

As if matters seemed bad, now they are well beyond that. I don't even recall what the now empty list is called, nor how to fix it if possible.

The now empty list is still accessed by clicking on the icon of a star that rests on another image at the top right-side of Firefox. to open the now empty list; even clicking on the manage bookmarks at the bottom just brings up the totally empty list. I tried looking at my Macrium backups to no avail, likely due to my having no idea what I was doing.

I am also fearful of what other catastrophes I may find.

A while later, I returned to Macrium when I recalled that it should have run a full backup this morning. That it did, and it might contain fixes, so I figured it would be worth running it. That, however, won't run as it states that the C: drive is locked and the restore process will only run the next time something else, name forgotten, is run, a problem not encountered the few times I had run a full restore. Why, what to do?

the lists are in the your users file... they can be imported and exported. only way they are gone is when they are deleted on purpose..

I am assuming you are referring to your Firefox bookmarks list. Correct?
What resulted in you losing your Firefox profile?
Your Firefox profile is stored at C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
NOTE: this is a hidden folder. To see it you must have file explorer options set to "show hidden files"

If you have an old Macrium image you can mount the image, go to that location within the image, copy the above folder.
Unmount the image, then paste the folder you copied into your current working Firefox at that same folder path.. It must have the exact same folder path as it was copied from.

IF you sync your favorites to a Firefox account, you do not ever have to worry about losing your bookmarks, history, or settings. Firefox will automatically sync to them once you login to your Firefox account

Bookmarks are the places.sqlite file and the icons for those sites are the favicons.sqlite file.

glasskuter said:

What resulted in you losing your Firefox profile?
Your Firefox profile is stored at C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Local\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
NOTE: this is a hidden folder. To see it you must have file explorer options set to "show hidden files"

Click to expand...

Note that the Firefox favorites are in AppData\Roaming, not AppData\Local. The local appdata stuff for Firefox is for caches, thumbnails, stuff like that.

@pseymour

Firefox normally has a backup of the bookmarks that can be import back into the browser.

best of luck Steve ..

I think the OP might need an easy fix. Would System Restore work to restore the OP's Firefox bookmarks?

I haven't used System Restore in a long time. I think it might be getting deprecated in the near future.

Firefox's built-in restore would be the easiest fix.: Bookmarks>Manage>Import...>Restore