Cannot access firefox. Error message "your firefox profile cannot be loaded. It maybe missing or inaccessible"

Question

This ocurred on my Dell Laptop, it seems, after several reset Firefox to Default. My Dell is an Inspriron/8600. I have removed Firefox and reloaded twice. What should Ido next.
Thanks
Bernard Crotty
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Answer 1

Hi Bernard, normally, when doing a Reset, Firefox moves your old profile folder to the desktop (in a folder named Old Firefox Data), creates a new profile folder incorporating some of the data from your old profile, and updates a configuration file with the new profile folder name. It sounds as though this broke down somewhere along the way. Let's see whether it was that third step.
In order to ease the next few steps, please make sure that you can view hidden files and folders. This article has the steps:
* Windows XP: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/win_fcab_show_file_extensions.mspx
* Newer Windows: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/show-hidden-files
To open your Firefox data folder, you can type or paste the following into either the Start menu Run box, Search box, or into the address bar of a Windows Explorer/My Computer window:
%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox
In the folder that loads, you should see a Profiles folder and a file named profiles.ini (it's a text file you can edit with Notepad).
Click into the Profiles folder to see whether you can find a semi-randomly-named folder. If you find it, click into it to confirm that it contains some files and isn't empty. If there is stuff there, let's work with it. Up in the address bar of Windows Explorer, select and copy the semi-random name of the folder, or you can make a note of it somewhere.
Return back up to the Firefox folder. Right-click>Edit the profiles.ini file and it should open in Notepad. You should see something like the following:
[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/'''asdf1234.default'''
Default=1
The part of Path after Profiles/ needs to match the name of the folder you copied or noted earlier. Go ahead and fix it and save the file.
Then try to start Firefox again. Any luck?
If the existing profile (post-Reset) is missing completely, or is missing important data, we can grab one of the earlier profile folders from the Old Firefox Data folder on your desktop. For the steps to do that, please see this post: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1025708#answer-641099