Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[jetkins]

I've been using NIS 2009, and last week I decided to upgrade to NIS 2010.  The upgrade failed, and the resolution process involved running the Norton Removal Tool and installing NIS 2010 from scratch.

In the process, I lost all of the login credentials that I had stored securely in NIS!

This is a major PITA because I had deliberately generated strong and unique passwords for many sites, secure in thebelief that NIS would look after them for me.  I'm now faced with the prospect of going through the password reset process on each and every one of those sites.Grrrrr.

But before I embark on that onerous process, I thought I'd ask if there's a simple way to recover the stored passwords that were lost in this transition.  I take nightly backups of my entire machine, so if they're stored in a file that I can simply restore from backup, that would save me a whole lot of heartache.

[Phil_D Norton Fighter · Accepted solution]

Hello jetkins,

Sorry to hear of your problem.

You might want to check this post by Symantec Employee jlatino0.  Although a different scenario, it may guide you in recovering your data.

[edit: targeted link]

Message Edited by Phil_D on 11-24-2009 01:55 PM

[jetkins]

Thanks!  I'll give that a try when I get home this evening.

[Phil_D Norton Fighter]

Be sure to let us know how it works out.

Might I also suggest that once your information is recovered, the "Backup Identity Safe Data" option is an invaluable tool to save your logins and passwords to another location or an external storage drive.

[mijcar]

---

jetkins wrote:
Thanks!  I'll give that a try when I get home this evening.

---

Not only try that specifically, but you might try a search for the file you need (even a search for deleted files if you have an app to do that).

If that doesn't work and you are willing to, you might be able to get the folder (and file) you need using the restore function you said you had.

[jetkins]

---

Phil_D wrote:

Might I also suggest that once your information is recovered, the "Backup Identity Safe Data" option is an invaluable tool to save your logins and passwords to another location or an external storage drive.

---

You're absolutely right that it's an invaluable tool, which makes me wonder why it's buried in the Web Settings where Joe User is never likely to see it.  I'm one of those people who routinely explores the settings of any new piece of software I install, but even I had missed that feature.

It really needs to be readily accessible from the Cards & Log-ins drop-down, or at least from the Manage Log-ins window.

[jetkins]

I just tried searching for the Norton data directory, and specifically the IDDstore.dat file on my PC, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.  I'm running 64-bit Windows 7 - can someone please point me to the right directory?

[jetkins]

Never mind, I found it under \Users\All Users after disabling "Hide protected operating system files" in Explorer.

[jetkins]

---

Phil_D wrote:

You might want to check this post by Symantec Employee jlatino0.  Although a different scenario, it may guide you in recovering your data.

---

For future reference, the instructions in the cited post had to be modified slightly for NIS 2010 running on Windows 7:

• The profile folder resides under C:\ProgramData\Norton\ on Win7, instead of XP's C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Norton\
• Even after disabling Tamper Protection, the system would not let me touch the Norton Internet Security service.  Instead, I booted to Safe Mode and copied the files from my temporary restore location into the profile folder, then rebooted back to normal operation.

Thanks again for your help.  My Identity Safe is now back to where it was prior to the failed upgrade, and all is sweetness and light once more. 

[mijcar]

---

jetkins wrote:

---

Phil_D wrote:

You might want to check this post by Symantec Employee jlatino0.  Although a different scenario, it may guide you in recovering your data.

---

For future reference, the instructions in the cited post had to be modified slightly for NIS 2010 running on Windows 7:

• The profile folder resides under C:\ProgramData\Norton\ on Win7, instead of XP's C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Norton\
• Even after disabling Tamper Protection, the system would not let me touch the Norton Internet Security service.  Instead, I booted to Safe Mode and copied the files from my temporary restore location into the profile folder, then rebooted back to normal operation.

Thanks again for your help.  My Identity Safe is now back to where it was prior to the failed upgrade, and all is sweetness and light once more. 

---

Congratulations; and thanks for the up-to-date info.