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[techgy]

I'm trying to assist a friend in the removal of the GoBack software.

Unfortunately, during the install, they apparently set a password and now they don't remember what it was.

All efforts to this end have failed, since we don't know the password.

Is there a way of removing the partition that GoBack is installed into and still leave the boot partition in place?

Suggestions anyone? 

Message Edited by techgy on 04-22-2008 08:39 AM

Message Edited by techgy on 04-22-2008 08:49 AM

[erik_carlstrom · Accepted solution]

The password is something that the user would set to password protect GoBack.  There is no default password (sometimes people will accidentally set it to blank, and you might try that).  Have you tried creating a boot disk and running gb_prog.exe?  I created an ISO a couple years ago that you can use to create a bootable CD that will automatically unhook GoBack from the MBR.  You can access through the following knowledge base document:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/goback.nsf/docid/2001092611363307

Message Edited by erik_carlstrom on 04-22-2008 08:44 AM

[techgy]

Erik,

Thanks a million! I'll give this a shot this afternoon when I get home from work.

I'll let you know what the results are.

Techgy 

[techgy]

Erik,

Your suggestion and information was dead on. It worked perfectly !

Thank you very much.

 

[vanhoosear]

Erik, I have a somewhat similar problem, but different situation.

I totally disassembled an old PC who's primary C drive was protected by GoBack--BEFORE I pulled the data from the drive of course.

So now I have the drive in an external enclosure, with no hope of ever re-assembling the old PC, but still want the data from it.

Will this ISO image work on an external USB-enclosed drive (that currently shows up as an unmountable generic USB drive), or only on an internal drive? Is there an option to select which drive you want to remove GoBack from?

If not, what are my options? It's an IDE drive and my new computer is NOT IDE... 

I don't want to bother with all this if it won't work... Thanks!

[erik_carlstrom]

Unfortunately this has only been tested when the drive is internal.  The formula for resolving it is the following:

Boot to DOS

A copy of gb_prog.exe (which can be copied from any version of GoBack installation media)

The drive protected by GoBack must be accessible while in DOS

You can try with the ISO, or build your own DOS boot disk.  Other options would be to manually modify the partition table, but that is much more difficult. 

[vanhoosear]

Thanks very much for the quick turnaround on this follow-up question, Erik--great service! I'll give this a shot tonight.

Just in case, are there instructions on how to modify the partition table -- what exactly to change?

- Todd

[erik_carlstrom]

No strict instructions due to the risk involved.  I would go for data recovery before manually modifying the table. 

[vanhoosear]

Erik,

FYI, my computer had trouble loading the CD drivers in that ISO image, and thus never got around to removing anything.

BUT, the boot manager of my computer recognized the drive and allowed me to boot from it. It was a little wonky, and rebooted/crashed a couple times, but I got GoBack to recognize that it wasn't loading properly, and offer the option to remove GoBack, which I did.

Upon rebooting, the drive showed up, and I'm pulling data from it now! Problem averted! :-)

Best,

- Todd

[erik_carlstrom]

Glad to hear it Todd.