Hello eveyrone, new member here
In Brief:
My windows XP OS is infected by Lasaoren. Last time I had problems (different) my local repair shop installed this version of Linux alongside a new Windows installation as insurance, hence my being here. Would give my soul to be rid of MS but very green with Linux, so pls forgive very basic question:
At the moment I'm accessing my Firefox Bookmarks from a plugged in external backup.
1) How do I "safely remove external device" from Linux?
2) Firefox has a very different User Interface here. How do I import bookmarks without an "Oganize Bookmarks" facility?

Any advice greatly appreaciated. Thanks in advance.

Simon

1 - It depends on how the drive was originally mounted. If it auto-mounted when you plugged it in, then if you open the file manager there should be a list of drives, and you should be able to right click and choose "unmount" or "remove" or something like that. Since you haven't told us what Linux distro this is, it's hard to get more specific than that. Of course there is always the failsafe of opening a terminal and doing it on the command line. In that case you would open the terminal, run "df -h" to print out all of the current filesystems, find the one you want to unmount, and run "sudo umount <device>", replacing "<device>" with /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdc1 or whatever device it is you want to unmount. If this isn't an Ubuntu/Mint derivative, then you would need to su to root before running the umount command. Some more details on your distro would help.

You can find addons for firefox which can import/export shortcuts from/to a file.
There is also a Firefox sync feature - which I've never used - that might be of interest.

Thank you both.
suicidal eggroll: Thank you for the quick response. I've spent the last few hours going over your reply and trying to find my way around the Linux system but I need a little more help to understand. Sorry, but I really am new to this.
Re which distro I'm using the Welcome Screen shows..
Release: Linux Mint 16 "Petra"..
Edition: Xfce 32-bit
I'm guessing that neither of the above are the distro, and I have no other information.
The usb stick was actually plugged in while I was still booted to Winows XP so as to make a bookmarks backup before leaving the infected OS.
Following your post I located the Linux file manager but there is no mention of drives, other than 'DeeDrive at the top of the page. On the left are three lists, DEVICES, PLACES and NETWORK. The Kingston usb stick was listed under devices, and when I right clicked it did indeed give the option to 'eject', which I assume means 'safely remove'. I didn't do this because I'm still using my bookmarks; instead I clicked a little arrow beside it, thinking this might open more options but instead the Kingston item disappeared and I'm unable to get it back or find it anywhere else. Very frustrating.
Re opening a terminal, the only place I've seen any sign of terminal(s) is when I click the little gear/cog icon bottom left of screen and 'Terminal Emulator' is one of the pop-up options. However when I click on it all I get is a blank, dark box appear top left or right of screen. Although dark it's transparent, I can read the page I'm on through it.
It has Terminal at the very top of it, directly beneath that, in green, it says: simon@simons-HP - S. (My name is Simon) but I'm guessing the terminal shouldn't look like that?
I've tried googling for a simple way of identifying the distro but all the answers seem to require typing in a terminal, which I'm unable to do. Could my Linux installation be flawed? I've no sound (which I believe is a not uncommon issue), and I get severe distortion with video, but these are comparirively minor issues at this point..

Jeremy, thank you, I'll investigat Firefox some more.

Mint 16 is your distro.
However, support is either ended (or will shortly end).
I'd recommend an install of Mint 17 (when convenient) as this is a LTS release (i.e. support runs from 2014 to 2019).
is your "Windows Manager" ie the way your desktop looks and behaves. Xfce is a very lightweight desktop and very suitable for small memory PC's.

The Terminal application should look exactly as you describe. Think of it as a command entry screen.
I suggest you use it to install an extra package:. This will ask for a password (the cursor won't move as it is typed) and you should enter your own password.

Enterinto your terminal and you should see info about your distro.
will list a host of possible parameters which you can use to display other info of interest.

In newer versions of Firefox press Ctrl+Shift+O to bring up the bookmarks manager.

Jeremy, thank you. I'll try to follow your instructions later this evening when I have time alone (or tomorrow at latest if I'm too tired tonight).
I'll post the results of my progress.

DJ Shaji, thanks for the tip. Very odd though; at first it didn't work, then after repeated efforts it suddenly did and I was able to import my bookmarks. Unfortunately I did it with HTML (I couldn't see a Json option) and my bookmarks are now rather crowded! But at least they're in there and I can tidy them up later. But now when I try the same keyboard shortcut it brings up my Linux file manager instead. Maybe my keyboard? Strange.

I feel very lost at the moment. I'm not tech savvy (as I'm sure you've guessed!) and I was only just getting to grips with XP. But I'm determined to persevere here, if only because I'm so utterly sick of everything Microsoft.

Re my original question, if I right click on the name of the external device in file manager the name disappears so I assume that means safe to remove, even though the 'in use' light on the device remains lit.

Editing that post deleted an important part of it, namely my thanks to both of you.

Maybe the same keyboard shortcut is set to open the file manager as well, in which case the window manager has precedence over the application. You can disable any keyboard shortcuts for the desktop via the "Keyboard" manager in the settings menu. If you just want access to the firefox bookmarks, in the firefox window press Alt+B to open the erstwhile Bookmarks menu. The first menu item opens the bookmarks manager.

What version of firefox are you running? On my 33.1, the export menu item under import and backup in the bookmarks manager by default exports to a .json file.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

For Firefox you can use the 'Show all bookmarks' under the Bookmarks menu at the top. You can import HTML to the browser & edit/move/delete/rearrange them as you please within the Library window.

Few links to references that I like to provide to new users;Have fun & enjoy!
Hope this helps.

Thank you onebuck. I'm currently logged into Windows trying to sort the issue that determined me to switch to Linux in the first place but I'll definitely be back and will make full use of yor links.