Norton 360

[Morsch]

5 Questions and I'll try to be brief.

I've had Norton 360 since it was introduced and backup(s) is/are on a second internal hd drive; "automatic when idle" option.  I've always used the Default designation and have never initiated the creation of a second backup set.

#1  It would appear that at any time that I've had to uninstall and reinstall Norton 360 this action may give birth to a new, second backup "default" set.  Correct?

#2  Though 2 backup folders are shown on my 2nd hdd, only 1 - "Default Set" - shows in "Manage Backups".  Is this to be expected?

#3  Is it advisable/appropriate to delete the out-dated backup folder by simply deleting it from hdd in Windows Explorer? Inaccessible, not shown in "Manage Backup sets".

#4  My true default backup set seems to be growing exponentially even though I have deleted many files.  Does the Norton Backup function only "add" files, folders to the default backup set instead of mirroring what is actually on your computer?

#5  Due to #4, should I periodically initiate a "new" backup set to accurately represent what should be backed up?  In other words, create a 100% new backup and delete old?

Thanks!

Morsch

[dickevans Super RootKit Eradicator · Accepted solution]

Welcome,

I'll place my responses under each of your questions so that I don't get confused

Morsch wrote:

5 Questions and I'll try to be brief.

I've had Norton 360 since it was introduced and backup(s) is/are on a second internal hd drive; "automatic when idle" option.  I've always used the Default designation and have never initiated the creation of a second backup set.

Sounds good so far

#1  It would appear that at any time that I've had to uninstall and reinstall Norton 360 this action may give birth to a new, second backup "default" set.  Correct?

That is correct. This would result in each of the sets doing what it is programed to do.

#2  Though 2 backup folders are shown on my 2nd hdd, only 1 - "Default Set" - shows in "Manage Backups".  Is this to be expected?

Only the current backup set's files are recognized automatically. You can bring the others up if needed

#3  Is it advisable/appropriate to delete the out-dated backup folder by simply deleting it from hdd in Windows Explorer? Inaccessible, not shown in "Manage Backup sets".

If they are backups that you no longer need/access for any reason then, yes do delete them and free up the disk space or useful data

#4  My true default backup set seems to be growing exponentially even though I have deleted many files.  Does the Norton Backup function only "add" files, folders to the default backup set instead of mirroring what is actually on your computer?

Are you doing a drive backup or only a file and folders backup? The drive backup does incremental backups after the initial full backup.

#5  Due to #4, should I periodically initiate a "new" backup set to accurately represent what should be backed up?  In other words, create a 100% new backup and delete old?

If you are doing the file and folders backup then you will need to delete older backups to keep the amount of space used for storing your backup from growing too much. If you use the drive backup then you can set when you want backups run adn when a new recovery point should be set. This will tell 360 to delete the old backup after it has made and verified the new one.

Thanks!

Morsch

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Hope this helps
Keep us posted

[Morsch]

Thanks for your answers.

Since I'm doing a Files and Folders backup, it makes sense to do a Drive Backup periodically also.  I've considered adding a 3rd HDD to Backup in toto my drive #1.

Backup, Clone or Ghost (?) ?

Thanks, again.

M

[dickevans Super RootKit Eradicator]

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Morsch wrote:

Thanks for your answers.

Since I'm doing a Files and Folders backup, it makes sense to do a Drive Backup periodically also.  I've considered adding a 3rd HDD to Backup in toto my drive #1.

Backup, Clone or Ghost (?) ?

Thanks, again.

M

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M,
Use a separate backup job for the drive backup to the new HDD. Letting 360 do it's thing with full and incremental backups is an easy way to keep current.

For disaster recovery you might consider useing the Ghost recovery disk to do a cold image of "C:\" from time to time. Make the new one before you delete the old one

Keep us posted