MS Office 2010 added a virtual drive Q onto my Vista system. When I try and run Norton 360 Disk Optimization it attempts to analyze disk Q and fails and does not proceed to the actual drives. The error message from Optimizer is "Drive Q: unable to analyze".
Hi,
do I assume right that this Office 2010 version is a Click-to-Run (C2R) edition?
Yes, it's some form of "light" version or starter version. But most definitely the culprit of the virtual drive.
Yes, this version is an interesting one.... It downloads a few hundred MB large file, and will use it as a seperate drive.
I will ask some Symantec folks what you can do to get ignored that "partition". It could take a little, I will get back to you asap. :)
Please post a screenshot of this error from Norton 360. I have also sent a Private Message for collecting logs. Please reply back with the screenshot and status of log files.
Thanks,
HarryP
I have attached the message that appears in Disk Optimization.
Sherman ...
Just so you know -- your image will appear shortly but has to go through moderation first .....
As per Microsoft's article, the Q:drive is not accessible to other applications(including Norton), not even accessible to users via Windows Explorer or My Computer.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982434
Only workaround is that you can replace your Office 2010 Click-to-Run version with traditional MSI based installation for Office 2010. The instructions are mentioned in the last section of the above Microsoft Article. Once you replace with MSI based Office 2010, there won't be any Virtual Drive 'Q:'. You cannot remove the virtual drive by any other means.
Thanks,
HarryP
Wait, what? So my solution for Norton 360 Disk Optimization failure is to upgrade my Microsoft Office 2010 software? Let's remove the other vendor for a moment and address this from a system stand point. Is it therefore a normal operation (as designed) that Disk Optimization cannot operate properly if there is a virtual drive? Is there no way then to optimize logical drives if a virtual drive is present unsing Norton 360? Is it stated in the system requirements for Norton 360 that virtual drives are not compatible?
Please clerify.
Disk Optimization can work if the virtual drive allows access to Norton 360. In your case, the Virtual Drive Q is inaccessible to other programs as well as for yourself(user).
Can you try to run Disk Defragmentation in Windows and let us know the results?
You can use the information from following Microsoft document as reference:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848
If you get any error message, please make a note of it.
Thanks,
HarryP
I would imagine that Norton will add some sort of workaround in a future version (this might even make it into the production release of v.6 since having such a Microsoft product out there is going to make this a real issue for many others like yourself. But for the moment, what has happened is one major vendor, Microsoft, did something that was neither anticipated by nor communicated to another (Symantec). It happens, since companies tend to be fairly secretive about the technical details of forthcoming releases for intellectual property reasons--and on the Norton side, who would have thought that a major vendor would create a virtual drive inaccessible to the user? After all, that would be a neat trick to conceal some malware and protect it from removal--which is, after all, what you pay Norton to detect.
The two companies will get this straightened out--and probably fairly quickly; HarryP is just offering you a way forward in the meantime, as the decisions on both sides about how to handle it without introducing a vulnerability in the process will take a while.
Okay, so the issue is not the existence of a virtual drive but access to it. That at least makes sense. The virtual Q: drive is not accessible through windows explorer or any other disk operation inside windows. Windows disk optimization cannot be done on Drive Q via the OS either. However, in the Windows disk functions I have the option to select which drives to optimize, this functions correctly.
This isn't a "Micorsft didn't tell anybody" issue. There are plenty other scenarios for simlar virtual drives of this kind.
So then the solution is not upgrading another vendors software. We need to have some configuration otions for the Disk Opimiazation operation in Norton 360 to enable the users to select the specific virtual drives. I assume then that this isn't an option today.
If you can identify a single other program that's been in widespread use for more than a few months that employs a virtual drive that is visible but denied access to the user and the OS (and which is not malware), then I'll readily concede that point.
It doesn't change the facts of the situation--which remain that until Norton is able to work with Microsoft to identify a workaround and implement it in a new package, the (only) solution, should you want to get the full benefit of the Norton product you've paid for, is to upgrade another vendor's software. Since you may not have known that would solve the issue before coming here, based on your posts, HarryP's suggestion was both helpful and reasonable, and berating him for it isn't going to get it fixed any faster.
I also have this problem. I have an ASUS EPad with MS Office 2010 Starter with a virtual Q drive. Thanks MS. Wish I could have a traditional install without the virtual drive. Any word if the next version of N360 with allow you to select or skip drives in optimisation?
Sherman17 wrote:This isn't a "Micorsft didn't tell anybody" issue. .
Yes, it is. M$ left hand apparently didn't tell it's right hand either: Microsoft's own defrag bombs (defrag /a) and that's the error N360 is reporting. The relevant question is whether this error is preventing defragmenting when defrag /a recommends it.
I agree that adding an exclude option is necessary for when these things happen--assuming everyone else will always conform to today's standards is bad policy.