Can't Access My Old, Stored Cookies

G

Guest

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow IE 6.02 changed my Temporary
Internet Files folder two days ago and created a brand new folder that
doesn't contain any of my previously stored cookies that I had saved to
remember my personalized settings for many different websites.

I have found the folder with ALL of the old cookies still there (a relief!),
but I cannot find a way to access those cookies again. I cannot reset that
folder as the Temporary Internet Files folder.

I tried copying and pasting the old cookies into the new Temporary Internet
Files folder, but IE and/or XP-sp2 won't let me do that. I tried copying the
''INDEX.DAT'' file from the folder containing all my old cookies and
settings, but I don't know to where I should copy the "INDEX.DAT" file so
that IE will once again be able to access ALL of the cookies I've previously
stored.

I have also tried the Import/Export Wizard in IE, but when I must choose a
file to export, I cannot select more that one file/cookie at at time so that
I can import them all at once.

I don't care that much about how or why this happened (although, that would
be helpful, too I just want to be able to access all that user information
I've carefully and meticulously stored in all those cookies that now I can't
access!

More Details...
<C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Cookies> is where the cookies are that
I want to access.

The directory of the new Temporary Internet Files (TIF) directory is
<C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Cookies\Temporary Internet Files>.
(However, I must note that this is a new TIF directory that was created when
I was trying to make the directory where my cookies are now, the new TIF
directory.) The folder that used to be the TIF directory, I think, was
C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Temporary Internet Files, which also
contains the Content.IE5 folder.

I've looked at the Cookies and TIF folders under ''Administrator,'' ''All
Users,'' and ''Default User,'' and none of them contain my old cookies.

As for cleaning programs that work with IE, I use SpybotSD, AdAware, and I
recently ran CCleaner (following the advice of several other members here.) I
was careful to deselect Cookies before I ran it. I do not have backup files
from previous runs of these programs.

What I mean by ''XP won't let me copy'' is that the ''Paste'' function isn't
available in the new TIF directory, <C:\Documents and Settings\(my
name)\Cookies\Temporary Internet Files>. Also, if I try to drag and drop the
old cookies into the same directory, there's just a circle/slash symbol
indicating that I can't do that.

There must be a simple solution to load settings and cookies from another
directory, shouldn't there be? I hope this info will help with a solution.
Thanks!
 
F

Frank Saunders, MS-MVP IE/OE

deejs6609 said:
I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow IE 6.02 changed my Temporary
Internet Files folder two days ago and created a brand new folder that
doesn't contain any of my previously stored cookies that I had saved
to remember my personalized settings for many different websites.

I have found the folder with ALL of the old cookies still there (a
relief!), but I cannot find a way to access those cookies again. I
cannot reset that folder as the Temporary Internet Files folder.

I tried copying and pasting the old cookies into the new Temporary
Internet Files folder, but IE and/or XP-sp2 won't let me do that. I
tried copying the ''INDEX.DAT'' file from the folder containing all
my old cookies and settings, but I don't know to where I should copy
the "INDEX.DAT" file so that IE will once again be able to access ALL
of the cookies I've previously stored.

I have also tried the Import/Export Wizard in IE, but when I must
choose a file to export, I cannot select more that one file/cookie at
at time so that I can import them all at once.

I don't care that much about how or why this happened (although, that
would be helpful, too I just want to be able to access all that user
information I've carefully and meticulously stored in all those
cookies that now I can't access!

More Details...
<C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Cookies> is where the cookies
are that I want to access.

The directory of the new Temporary Internet Files (TIF) directory is
<C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Cookies\Temporary Internet
Files>. (However, I must note that this is a new TIF directory that
was created when I was trying to make the directory where my cookies
are now, the new TIF directory.) The folder that used to be the TIF
directory, I think, was C:\Documents and Settings\(my name)\Temporary
Internet Files, which also contains the Content.IE5 folder.

I've looked at the Cookies and TIF folders under ''Administrator,''
''All Users,'' and ''Default User,'' and none of them contain my old
cookies.

As for cleaning programs that work with IE, I use SpybotSD, AdAware,
and I recently ran CCleaner (following the advice of several other
members here.) I was careful to deselect Cookies before I ran it. I
do not have backup files from previous runs of these programs.

What I mean by ''XP won't let me copy'' is that the ''Paste''
function isn't available in the new TIF directory, <C:\Documents and
Settings\(my name)\Cookies\Temporary Internet Files>. Also, if I try
to drag and drop the old cookies into the same directory, there's
just a circle/slash symbol indicating that I can't do that.

There must be a simple solution to load settings and cookies from
another directory, shouldn't there be? I hope this info will help
with a solution. Thanks!

If you didn't use IE's File | Import and Export to export the cookies so
that you could import them then I'm afraid you're out of luck.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/security/protect/default.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
 

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