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Visitor
Mendra72
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎10-26-2011

Re-use backup?

This is before implementing the Toolbar fix that is referred to here -

http://community.norton.com/t5/Norton-360/Norton-360-toolbar-not-showing-up-on-firefox-7/m-p/550120/...

 

If i follow these steps will I be able to have Backup find my old backups and use them to continue or do I have re-do all my backups?

 

DistEd2
Posts: 1,514
Kudos: 315
Solutions: 68
Registered: ‎08-11-2011

Re: Re-use backup?

[ Edited ]

Hi, Mendra72,

 

Since I wrote those instructions, we have had a small number of users report that running the Removal Tool by itself has removed critical drivers that Norton integrates with to protect your system (especially CD/DVD drives). So if you do proceed with that solution, I'd suggest a more recent version of the instructions:

 

  1. Export your Identity Safe cards/credentials to your desktop if you've set these up, so you'll be able to import them back in when your clean install is complete.
  2. Make sure that you have set up (and can still access) your Norton Account, and that your current Norton 360 subscription is showing under the "Products" tab, with a big yellow "Download" button at right; this is how you will reinstall your Norton product and have it linked automatically to your subscription.
  3. From Windows Control Panel, use the Add/Remove Programs function to uninstall your Norton 360. This will disconnect all your critical system drivers from your security product so they aren't deleted by the next step. Be sure to take advantage of any opportunity you're given to save your Norton settings, so they can be reloaded by Norton 360 when you reinstall it later in this process. Reboot your computer when the uninstall is complete.
  4. Download and run the Norton Removal Tool to ensure a complete uninstall of your existing Norton product. This is necessary because of the extent to which a security package needs to have its tendrils deeply intertwined throughout the Operating System to do its job, and will clean up debris Windows leaves behind that may interfere with proper operation of your Norton product.
  5. Once the Norton Removal Tool has finished, reboot your computer again, and immediately log back into your Norton Account and click that big yellow Download button. Remember, until you do this, you are temporarily without your Norton protection.

This last step will reinstall Norton 360 and link it automatically to your existing subscription. You should now be back in business, protected by "the speed and power of Norton!" :smileyvery-happy:

 

Please let us know how this works out. We're here to support you until you can click that "Accept as Solution" button!

 

There is a good possibility that this revised process will retain all your backup information, preventing the situation you were originally worried about. Should your backups become disconnected, though, you can reconnect them by ensuring that two files: arestore.exe and arestore.loc are present in the root of your backup drive, and running arestore.exe to pick them back up again.

 

Note, also, that another small number of Firefox users have not been able to get their toolbars back without also uninstalling and reinstalling Firefox along with the Norton remove-and-reinstall. Firefox appears to be very particular about the order in which these things are done. So you may wish instead to follow the procedure here--or you can keep this in the back of your mind in case just reinstalling Norton doesn't work.

 

I have not been able to see enough of a pattern in these cases to judge whether your situation is likely to be one of them, so your decision essentially amounts to: would you prefer to assume you're going to be in the majority for whom just reinstalling Norton works--and risk having to remove and reinstall Norton again and do the same for Firefox too--or whether you'd prefer to just get it all over with at once and remove and reinstall both together, even though the odds are that doing so for Firefox isn't really necessary.

 

I'll be back in a minute with a link to the "both at once" procedure....

Visitor
Mendra72
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎10-26-2011

Re: Re-use backup?

[ Edited ]

Does this apply if my Backups are on an externally attached USB drive?

DistEd2
Posts: 1,514
Kudos: 315
Solutions: 68
Registered: ‎08-11-2011

Re: Re-use backup?

[ Edited ]

Yes. In fact that's really the situation that arestore (also known as "portable restore") was designed for.

 

Have also got the links in to the Firefox-specific remove-and-reinstall, should you elect to do both at once "just in case."