Norton Internet Security / Norton AntiVirus

[ChristopherA]

Dch48, your analysis is correct. The file had become corrupt and couldn’t be updated. We are working on a fix for the issue.

 

I expect this was caused by a rare event and will not happen again now that you have fixed the problem. If it does occur again, we would be eager to work further with you on this.

 

Note: There has been some discussion about permanently turning off Norton Tamper Protection. I strongly recommend you do not do so unless you have a clear reason you absolutely must do this.

  

[mijcar]

Christopher, an old problem with NSW occurred just last night that might be helpful in this situation:

I was frozen in an IBM update.  It wouldn't complete; it wouldn't cancel.  So I tried to shut it down with the task manager.  When that didn't work, I shutdown from the task manager (which almost always works in these situations).  After the reboot, when I got to the desktop, there was a Norton or Symantec message that Drive E wouldn't initialize (or something like that).

It took me a moment, but I remembered the problem from about two to four years ago.  It was a corruption in the Norton Recycling Folder where it saved deleted system files.  Once corrupted, it was unopenable and produced that message.  This would happen on any of the three drives on my computer where the corruption might occur.

The fix was simple.  Right-click on the waste-basket, configure Norton to no longer save system files.  Go to each recycling bin and delete both Norton files there, for the appropriate drive.  Then reconfigure Norton to protect system files; and it was all clear.

Of course, what happened to cause the corruption was this:

I was in the middle of a stalled installation.  Norton meanwhile was in the process of protecting system files.  When I forced shutdown, I got one of those MS messages about a Symantec product not closing down and asking me if I wanted to do go ahead and do it anyway, despite the possibility of lost data.  I did what I usually do and told it to shut the durn thing down (always waiting to the last moment, though).  This time it must have affected indexes or file structure.  Ergo, the corrupted file.

And that suggests what happened to the file referenced by the posters here.  It got damaged by being closed in the middle of being written to or indexed.  Deleting it would fix it; but then should it be replaced with an empty dummy file?  Or is there a way to make Norton rebuild it on its own if it can't find it?  And, last, if the cause is as I suggested, then might the fix be build into the process so instead of giving the user the warning (as I get) or locking something up, the fix (delete file, rebuild) can happen in place?

Message Edited by mijcar on 10-22-2008 09:42 PM

[bubbear]

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ChristopherA wrote:

Dch48, your analysis is correct. The file had become corrupt and couldn’t be updated. We are working on a fix for the issue.

 

I expect this was caused by a rare event and will not happen again now that you have fixed the problem. If it does occur again, we would be eager to work further with you on this.

 

Note: There has been some discussion about permanently turning off Norton Tamper Protection. I strongly recommend you do not do so unless you have a clear reason you absolutely must do this.

  

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From my experience once you get it will continue to happen. I have to reset the defs every couple of days as they are not updating and live update gives error 8920, 200. If you want more info just message me.

Bubbear

[Dch48]

The file in question only gets written to when it is updated, so it didn't happen because of a shutdown before that process was finished. It updated fine two days before but today it wouldn't. I hope the fix comes out soon because I've heard that the situation recurs.

[ChristopherA]

I quite agree with your analysis, mijcar, it parallels my own. I know of no way for Norton itself to cause the file corruption. I believe the file is being corrupted by some sort of unrelated computer failure. LiveUpdate has mechanisms to correct external problems of this sort, but unfortunately there is an issue fixing this one particular file. Once the file is deleted, however, LiveUpdate can restore it with a full download. Our fix will allow LiveUpdate to delete the file automatically, just as you suggest.

I expect this will fix the problem. However, it would be very interesting to know what kinds of events most commonly occur on our users' machines to cause this to happen.

[ChristopherA]

Hi Dch48, I don't want you to think I was ignoring you, I was writing my previous post before you posted.

I've not yet heard of the situation recurring except in the case of bubbear. One of our engineers, MJP, is trying to work with bubbear to sort out what is happening in that case.