wtf firefox just deletet 15gb on my disk!!!

Amberdust · Post by **Amberdust** » May 7th, 2004, 8:13 am

This sounds way too serious to even be called a bug. Instead, it seems like a major distribution flaw in what otherwise seems like an outstanding program. Losing all your Program Files folder is simply not acceptable. And neither is not being able to uninstall the program. In fact, if I was the programmer/distributor, I would at the very least try to find a way to warn all users before they installed the program. And by warning I don't mean a couple of references in a rather hard-to-find bug list. It should be clearly specified at some place where everyone who downloads/installs Firefox could read it.
That being said, I have so far enjoyed Firefox very much. Thank you.

Post by **Vectorspace** » May 7th, 2004, 8:28 am

Is this only happening with the installer of the nightlies? I use the 0.8 milestone, and have installed/uninstalled it many times, without problems. Of course, it wasn't installing to the default location, but rather D:\Software\Mozilla Firefox

The only bug I've noticed with the installer is that it doesn't give you the 'New Folder' button when running in Win 98.

troloff · Post by **troloff** » May 7th, 2004, 8:42 am

I've used <a href="http://www.quetek.com/prod02.htm">File Scavenger</a> to successfully recover deleted files before.

Dunderklumpen · Post by **Dunderklumpen** » May 7th, 2004, 9:08 am

There have been this type of serious bugs ever since the installer was released and we have seen several users loosing information due to it before. The first serious problems was introduced with the 0.8 Milestone and shortly after that the first users lost most of their installed software. The bug, this or similar ones has been there ever since the 0.8 Milestone as far as I know.

And I agree - this is not a bug - it is much more serious and me and my company have publically warned about using the install-versions and I do not recommend anyone using them.

And Cusser has an excellent point - why not use an open source installer?

Dougieha · Post by **Dougieha** » May 7th, 2004, 10:20 am

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=233625

and for the installer:

http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=228672 (this one has been fixed, though)

Dougieha

Guest · Post by **Guest** » May 7th, 2004, 11:29 am

so, if i use the official build on the website, will i get this nasty bug???

sboulema · Post by **sboulema** » May 7th, 2004, 11:39 am

if you use the installer yes

Guest · Post by **Guest** » May 7th, 2004, 11:46 am

how can I avoid this?
Can somebody tell me how to manually do it? What else do I need to delete besides the Firefox folder and the one in Application Data?

sboulema · Post by **sboulema** » May 7th, 2004, 11:49 am

nothing
you can search the registry for "firefox" but that isnt necesarry

lushan · Post by **lushan** » May 7th, 2004, 11:52 am

Let me get this straight. If i installed firefox to C:/Program Files/Firefox, the uninstaller will delete C:/Program Files? Or does it only delete the folder FireFox?

essveepdx · Post by **essveepdx** » May 7th, 2004, 11:54 am

Thats interesting. I uninstalled firefox yesterday and re-installed it (using the installer) and my program files directory is intact (whew!) I got a dialog box that asked whether I wanted to delete the folder, and I said "yes". Thankfully everything's still OK.

lushan · Post by **lushan** » May 7th, 2004, 12:04 pm

Somebody please answer my question, I am about to uninstall FireFox and I really want to keep my C:/Program Files.

finuvir · Post by **finuvir** » May 7th, 2004, 12:11 pm

lushan you don't need to use the uninstaller to get rid of Firefox. Just delete the Firefox folder (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\) and the profiles folder (C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Phoenix\).

Racer · Post by **Racer** » May 7th, 2004, 12:22 pm

I am guessing, but it sounds to me like FF was installed into the "C:\Program Files" directory instead of "C:\Program Files\FireFox" (as the installer should have done). So, when it was uninstalled, the program saw C:\Program Files as the FF program directory and deleted everything inside.

Hybrid · Post by **Hybrid** » May 7th, 2004, 12:23 pm

Cusser wrote:
I can not understand why it is still there, or why the installer is still being relased.

I can't understand why Ben is using a custom built installer, when there are many open source installers which could do the job cross-platform a lot better. For "a lot better" read "without deleting system files".

I agree. Whats the stubborness of this guy with switching to a new installer? There are several out there that will do the job better and be much more stable. If I downloaded a free program and it wiped out my program folder I would be seeking aid to destroy half the files on the programmers own PC. That is a brutal loss over (reason I stick to zip files...no installer for me), I feel for you...

I cant see how they want the installer builds tested when these kind of problems are prevelant and have been for weeks now...