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I didn't use the online backup to backup my whole system. I only backed up documents that I couldn't lose like financial, legal and medical records and Word & Excel docs, etc.
Perhaps I don't understand the definition of the word - backup?
Is it true that I cannot access my online backup from my dead laptop on another computer?
I feel so misled on this product.
Can I get access to my backup from another PC on my account? I have 3 computers on one account.
btester92 wrote:
I'm pretty sure you can only access your backup from the comptuer you used to make the backup, since the server stores your information by the "Computer Name" that you used when you setup the online backup. If you change your computer name on the new computers to the same one as the old computers, you may be able to restore from the online backup. Also, the online backup isn't meant for backing up your entire system, so it's not a backup solution you'll want to turn to should your computer die on you. For that, you want something that will create an image of your hard drive, like Norton Ghost.
dkuglin wrote:
Is it true that I cannot access my online backup from my dead laptop on another computer?
I feel so misled on this product.
Can I get access to my backup from another PC on my account? I have 3 computers on one account.
I don't know if this is the right place for enhancement requests, but as things stand, viewing the files that you backed is not very convenient. You only get a small, fixed-size window to view the files. You can't simply ask show me what's there, you can only search for files or folders that you specify. There is no wildcard support. And you get a flat list rather than a tree structure.
What I would like to see is a resizable window with a tree structure, at the root of which you have computer names.
First off as Tony points out above, you can indeed access your online files from a different computer as long as it's the same Norton account. When you click restore, on the "Restore Now" window click the "Change" button on the "Restore From" bar. This will show you the locations you can restore from, click "Secure online storage", from there you should see the different backup sets from each computer attached to that account.
Norton 360 v2.0 does have wildcard support and also has the tree structure for the listing of files. To use a wildcard for searching you would just type "test*" where the "*" represents the unknown part of the file / folders you are looking for.
Hope this answers your questions.
Matt_boucher wrote:you can indeed access your online files from a different computer as long as it's the same Norton account. When you click restore, on the "Restore Now" window click the "Change" button on the "Restore From" bar. This will show you the locations you can restore from, click "Secure online storage", from there you should see the different backup sets from each computer attached to that account.
I have several computers attached to the same account but the above doesn't work for me. I can only see the files backed up from the local computer. I'm using V1 because V2's online backup is fatally flawed as far as I'm concerned (see this thread).
Sorry for repeating the question, but I think it is rather important. I want to be sure that I'll be able to recover my files when I need them. So far, I only have Symantec's word for it. I have several computers on the same N360 account. Contrary to what I read earlier in this thread, I am unable to view one computer's backup files from another computer. I can only pray that, when disaster strikes, I'm going to reinstall the crashed computer with the same name, reinstall N360 and my files will be there...
With other online backup products, you typically go to any other computer, no need to install any software, you authenticate to the vendor's site and there are your files. With N360, you don't know that you'll be able to recover your files until disaster strikes and you try. I realise that only bad news tends to be be reported in forums like this, but judging by the experience described by other users who went through the ordeal, I might be in for a surprise...
I understand your concern, and I also wouldn’t just take someone’s word for it - I would try it out before it needed to work. If this is a concern of yours, I recommend that you give it a try and let us know if you had any problems. Thanks!
janneman wrote:
With other online backup products, you typically go to any other computer, no need to install any software, you authenticate to the vendor's site and there are your files. With N360, you don't know that you'll be able to recover your files until disaster strikes and you try. I realise that only bad news tends to be be reported in forums like this, but judging by the experience described by other users who went through the ordeal, I might be in for a surprise...
N360's backup service works a little differently than the type of service that you describe. With N360 your files are encrypted and compressed and uploaded to the file servers in chunks. This allows for:
- Added security (256 bit AES encryption)
- The ability to cancel/interrupt a backup part way through and begin where you left off
- Only upload file changes so your subsequent backups are quicker
Your files are encrypted using your passkey so nobody could read them even if they could get onto the servers. Conversely, if your files were stored as is (eg, an FTP or WebDAV server) then your files are readily accessible but you lose a lot of the features that N360 provides.
There is currently a (very uncommon) problem in N360 where a backup set name is either somehow duplicated or in some way lost so that people are unable to access their other backup sets manually. In these cases someone from Symantec has to assist with the restore but in many cases, with a little bit of work, the customer is able to restore their data on their own.
If you have any questions as we've said please feel free to post or send a PM (or email) and I or someone else will try to answer ot the best of our ability.
~scott
"I recommend that you give it a try" - what kind of test would you suggest?
I already know that one machine can't see another machine's backed up files, even though they are on the same N360 account. What I haven't tried is crash a machine, rebuild it from scratch with the same name, reinstall N360 and see if I can get my files back. That's an expensive test and I don't have a spare N360 license to try it. Moreover, assuming I did get my files back, I still wouldn't be sure why: was it because it's the same machine name? Or because it's the same piece of hardware? What would happen if this computer was reduced to ashes and I had to buy a new one?
In other words: can we think of the kind of firedrill exercise that will prove to me that I'll get my files back when I need them, without requiring me to buy a spare computer and a spare N360 license?
None of this would be an issue if, as suggested earlier in this thread, multiple computers on the same N360 account could indeed see each other's backed up files. That is not what I see. Am I missing something?
I finally figured out how to access another computer's online backup files. The instructions given earlier in this thread are incomplete. As it turns out, if like me before today, you have only ever done online backup, you will never see the "select PC nickname" dialog. You only get that dialog when you change the "restore from" location from some place else to online storage. Without a local backup, there is no "some place else" and you never get the dialog. "Pretending" isn't good enough, e.g. if you change the "restore from" location to CD (the only alternative that the UI gives you) and then change it back to online storage, you still won't get the dialog unless you really had a backup on CD
I’m pretty sure you can only access your backup from the comptuer you used to make the backup, since the server stores your information by the “Computer Name” that you used when you setup the online backup. If you change your computer name on the new computers to the same one as the old computers, you may be able to restore from the online backup. Also, the online backup isn’t meant for backing up your entire system, so it’s not a backup solution you’ll want to turn to should your computer die on you. For that, you want something that will create an image of your hard drive, like Norton Ghost.