Found Norton 360 Backups from 2008-2009 but no luck using Arestore.exe

Norton 360 for Windows
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I have a bunch of old CDs, some were corrupted but others have copied, I assume fine, to my laptop.

Using ARestore it detects the backups and gives the option to restore, but trying to do this to a new folder stops with an error for every single file stating “Failed to restore”. See image attached.

It was difficult finding a place to download ARestore (shoutout to the support person who made the thread with the download links), and I’ve read it could be a program version mismatch? I have no idea what version we were using back then and the machine itself is long gone. I’d love to get some of these files restored just for curiosity’s sake. These backups came from my first laptop as a young teen so just wondering what wild gems must be in there.

Thanks for the help.

Screenshot 2025-09-07 124620
Screenshot 2025-09-07 1246202110×1370 197 KB

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Har du 25.8 der er mange fejl i 25.7 25.8 fixer mange fejl i backup har jeg fået at vide af dem der bruger backup

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The Arestore file should be included with the backup as it is stored. Did you create those backups directly to the CD’s? Check the CD contents to see if you can find Arestore there. If so, run it from there and see if the restore will proceed.

1 Like
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All: The file ARestore.loc has to be present as well. @Kazen do you see that file in the backup drive?

Edited: Is there an option to restore to a destination/folder./directory other than the original? Just a though.

SA

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Neither Arestore or the .loc file were present within the CD backups themselves, they only have a backup.@db file inside the N360_BACKUP folder. So I went looking for the program and downloaded it.

I have been pasting the program and .loc file into the backup folder to restore.

I took screenshots of the steps I took, I can only post one per comment so hold on..

2. No backup sets found outside of N360_BACKUP folder.
2. No backup sets found outside of N360_BACKUP folder.2824×1390 317 KB

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3. ARestore inside N360_BACKUP folder
3. ARestore inside N360_BACKUP folder2955×1366 485 KB

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4. File restore window - choose restore location
4. File restore window - choose restore location1996×1407 255 KB

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Restore failing on a different backup set from a second disc.

5. Attempting restore again
5. Attempting restore again2099×1400 187 KB

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Which version ARestore is? …It’s not version 25 lol

Screenshot 2025-09-07 184508
Screenshot 2025-09-07 184508802×718 24.8 KB

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It would have to be somewhere in here otherwise no, it doesn’t appear to have a copy of ARestore inside the backups.

Screenshot 2025-09-07 185139
Screenshot 2025-09-07 1851391313×1552 71.2 KB

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So it appears you did get the first, Peach, backup to restore. Did you copy the CD contents to your hard drive in a temporary folder and then add the Arestore.exe to that folder?

Then the second CD did not restore. Did you do exactly the same thing in adding the Arestore to that backup set?

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Hey everyone, sorry I didn’t get back to you on this. Things got hectic very quickly :frowning:
So, Peach was the name of my PC back then. None of the backups work. Pasting the ARestore program into their folder allows it to see the backups. It gives the option to restore them. But then it fails every time.

Is it that I need the original ARestore that seemingly didn’t copy with the backups, from the version of Norton, or is there anything else I can do to restore these? I doubt, if I need a specific version of the restore program, that I’d be able to find that exact one 16/17 years later… Wow.