Windows 10: Are these crashed drive Recuva-recovered Chrome bookmarks usable?

I made a previous thread but it got real messy and confusing, I don't think a lot of people would bother reading it at this point.

In simple, with my windows 8.1 computer was fine but wasn't getting internet even though other PCs on router were. I tried some basic network disable then enable etc but nothing worked so I did a REFRESH YOUR PC WITHOUT AFFECTING YOUR FILES (yea, right). It kept freezing at %3 SETTING UP A FEW MORE THINGS. I was told the 240GB SSD ran out of space or something and basically bricked itself. Luckily I was able to get my most important stuff back from that drive but not my bookmarks. I did not synch anything nor did I use a Google account.

I then bought a new 1TB SSD and Windows 10.
When simply viewing the crashed drive there's not even a google folder where it should be in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
But I've been able to retreive Chrome bookmarks and bookmarks.bak files through Recuva program. I saved them to C: drive BTW, in case Desktop would make them maybe just a 'shortcut'.

Recuva found several Poor condition and unrecoverable condition bookmark files, but 5 are Excellent with no bad clusters (or whatever it says).
Some people can open these files with wordpad or notepad and at least see the URLs and copy them, but I open them and get a bunch of weird symbols and/or Korean writing (Auto detect Google translate says it's Korean but doesn't convert to English, only a few English words here and there, nothing usable).
The file contents look like:
p[w
or
繩湡

These files are like 5 pages long (I had like 350 bookmarks) and don't want to post too much in case there's passwords or something that can still be converted but you get the idea.

Chrome Bookmarks Recovery Tool Chrome Bookmarks Recovery Tool
"Error! The file is invalid. Try again!"
I get an error trying to convert these to .html which this is meant for.


Recuva found files named bookmarks, bookmarks_1, and _2, and bookmarks.bak, bookmarks_1.bak.
I tried manually putting these in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
and removing the _1 and _2 one at a time and restarting Chrome but nothing worked.


I removed .bak to make it just bookmarks, I read that should be done even if you also retreived the non-.bak bookmarks file. That didn't work.

I made a copy of the retrieved files and renamed them .html to Import and test each one at once through Chrome as an .html file. Chrome says it worked but there are no bookmarks.


Yes I will now regularly back up bookmarks. And noting REFRESH YOUR PC WITHOUT AFFECTING FILES is a last resort for a more serious problem if need be and to back everything up beforehand and expect a lot more to be deleted than it makes it seem.

:)

 

Are these crashed drive Recuva-recovered Chrome bookmarks usable?

Welp this is my last shot:

I'll try these recovery tools besides Recuva. I heard them may give different results.
sqlitebrowser.org
EaseUS(R) | Data Recovery, Backup, Partition Manager & PC Utility Software
I'll also recovered random txt files with these and recuva and see if they're readable.
If I don't post back, assume this didn't work for the bookmarks files.
In the end, I'm much more happy that I was able to get my other more important stuff back than loosing my bookmarks.

I really don't see why it was a problem that I asked this question on multiple forums. Yes I asked on like 9 forums, this may be a tricky problem, but at least someone mentioned a recovery program which DID find 5 bookmarks files in "excellent condition' but ended up not being usable. And I don't get why the second thread was deleted, it could have helped others searching with similar problem.
Anyway, thanks for any suggestions, take care.

 

Are these crashed drive Recuva-recovered Chrome bookmarks usable?

I made a previous thread but it got real messy and confusing, I don't think a lot of people would bother reading it at this point.

In simple, with my windows 8.1 computer was fine but wasn't getting internet even though other PCs on router were. I tried some basic network disable then enable etc but nothing worked so I did a REFRESH YOUR PC WITHOUT AFFECTING YOUR FILES (yea, right). It kept freezing at %3 SETTING UP A FEW MORE THINGS. I was told the 240GB SSD ran out of space or something and basically bricked itself. Luckily I was able to get my most important stuff back from that drive but not my bookmarks. I did not synch anything nor did I use a Google account.

I then bought a new 1TB SSD and Windows 10.
When simply viewing the crashed drive there's not even a google folder where it should be in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
But I've been able to retreive Chrome bookmarks and bookmarks.bak files through Recuva program. I saved them to C: drive BTW, in case Desktop would make them maybe just a 'shortcut'.

Recuva found several Poor condition and unrecoverable condition bookmark files, but 5 are Excellent with no bad clusters (or whatever it says).
Some people can open these files with wordpad or notepad and at least see the URLs and copy them, but I open them and get a bunch of weird symbols and/or Korean writing (Auto detect Google translate says it's Korean but doesn't convert to English, only a few English words here and there, nothing usable).
The file contents look like:
Ϧp¶[w
or
繩湡

These files are like 5 pages long (I had like 350 bookmarks) and don't want to post too much in case there's passwords or something that can still be converted but you get the idea.

Chrome Bookmarks Recovery Tool Chrome Bookmarks Recovery Tool
"Error! The file is invalid. Try again!"
I get an error trying to convert these to .html which this is meant for.


Recuva found files named bookmarks, bookmarks_1, and _2, and bookmarks.bak, bookmarks_1.bak.
I tried manually putting these in C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Bookmarks
and removing the _1 and _2 one at a time and restarting Chrome but nothing worked.


I removed .bak to make it just bookmarks, I read that should be done even if you also retreived the non-.bak bookmarks file. That didn't work.

I made a copy of the retrieved files and renamed them .html to Import and test each one at once through Chrome as an .html file. Chrome says it worked but there are no bookmarks.


Yes I will now regularly back up bookmarks. And noting REFRESH YOUR PC WITHOUT AFFECTING FILES is a last resort for a more serious problem if need be and to back everything up beforehand and expect a lot more to be deleted than it makes it seem.

 

Are these crashed drive Recuva-recovered Chrome bookmarks usable?

Here's the previous thread for reference:
Can't Find Chrome Bookmark file in crashed drive