Hmm, let's start with bookmarkbackups.

In that folder, you usually find several files whose names include a date and a count of the number of bookmarks in the backup. Do any of those look recent? You can restore one or two of them to your Documents or the Desktop or some other convenient location.

Then from there, you can use this article to restore the backup file: Restore bookmarks from backup or move them to another computer. The items on that menu are only new files, so to get to the file on your Desktop or in Documents, use the bottom item on the menu, "Choose File".

Does that get back what you want?

Regarding importing IE Favorites, you probably would have the best luck copying the contents of your old Windows Favorites folder into the new Windows Favorites folder. Then you can export an HTML-format file from IE and import that into Firefox.

Importing an HTML-format bookmarks file adds onto your existing Firefox bookmarks. But you need to do it after you do the restore mentioned in the earlier post, because a restore wipes out everything present in your Firefox bookmarks.

• Export favorites from IE to an HTML file: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/add-view-organize-favorites (Export Favorites is one of the topics listed at the bottom of the page)

• Import the HTML file into Firefox: Import Bookmarks from an HTML file

Success?