Huge firefox problem

I've been using firefox fine for months. I used it today not all that long ago. I came home and went to use it, and it wasn't opening. The menu at the top of the screen would say "Firefox" and no other options, and I couldn't click on it. I had to force quit. The problem persisted. My Mac has been bugging me to update, so I did that, it restarted, and firefox still wasn't working.
I used safari to get a new copy of firefox. I installed and replaced the existing firefox. Still nothing.
Searched for a solution.
Created a new firefox profile and a firefox window came up welcoming me to firefox 8. So I closed firefox and was then looking to transfer bookmarks etc. between profiles.
Then it was telling me that I already had a copy of firefox open, and I couldn't open it. It wasn't running. Although after closing safari, the "welcome to 8" window was there and I closed it, but the problem persisted.
So I deleted the new profile, which reverted me back to my original problem of firefox just doing nothing when I try to open it, and I have to force quit it.

Under Application support - there was no firefox folder, just mozilla. I ended up opening finder and doing "go > go to folder " "~/library" and found a firefox folder with the appropriate profile and a recent backup of my bookmarks in there (although no .html file, just some .jop or something that opens in a code program). I put a copy of that in my personal folder, and then send firefox the the trash. Then installed again.
The problem is persisting.

I have no bookmarks, and even had to search for a thread I made months ago on this forum just to find out what my username on here was to log in and make this thread!
This is driving me nuts!!! What the hell happened and how do I fix it?
This essentially ruined my night, because I'm the kind of person where this will piss me off until I fix it and my husband was looking forward to watching a movie with me. It's been at least an hour of me sitting here messing with it.
So angry.

 

Ok. well, just downloaded firefox 7 - uninstalled previous, installed 7. Took a minute to open completely, and it's running slow like it's skipping or something, but it's working. Time to back crap up before it goes to hell again.


So, any ideas on why it's going slow? or what happened? I hadn't been running 8 before I don't believe... at least I hadn't changed any settings on it or updated anything on my computer before it stopped working...

 

I've just used firefox for years and really love it and I'm comfortable with it. This is the first time I've had a problem with it. I can't understand what happened, but it's working fine now. It updated itself to 8 with no problems, still running good. I backed up my bookmarks. I'd say my saved passwords are almost more important than the bookmarks... I need to write all that down in a safe place...

If this problem ever happens to me again, at least I know how to fix it now.