I have some large files showing up in the following directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\NIS_17.1.0.19\NCW
Specifically, the files in question are:
MrClean.db = 549645 kb (aka ~540mb) - last modified at 19:12 on 14-4-2009 (about the time I am typing this message)
MrClean.db.bak = 545415 kb - last modified at 20:31 on 13-4-2009 (yesterday evening)
Since they appear to be related to Norton, I decided to post a message here to see if someone could tell me what they are and if/how I can remove them.
I have some large files showing up in the following directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Norton\{0C55C096-0F1D-4F28-AAA2-85EF591126E7}\NIS_17.1.0.19\NCW
Specifically, the files in question are:
MrClean.db = 549645 kb (aka ~540mb) - last modified at 19:12 on 14-4-2009 (about the time I am typing this message)
MrClean.db.bak = 545415 kb - last modified at 20:31 on 13-4-2009 (yesterday evening)
Since they appear to be related to Norton, I decided to post a message here to see if someone could tell me what they are and if/how I can remove them.
Those are the files used by Norton Community Watch for submitting information to Symantec. Norton Community Watch helps in identifying new security risks by submitting selected security and application data to Symantec for analysis. It can include URLs of Web sites, information about different processes and files, response taken against threats etc. You can try deleting the items listed under Norton Community Watch in History, and check whether the problem still persists. You can also turn off the Norton Community Watch from NIS 2010 settings.
The files in question, especially the mrclean.db file, is a required file that is part of the Norton Internet Security product. Unless such advice comesdiectly from Symantec Support, please do not follow any advice regarding turning off Norton Protection or advice regarding deleting any of the files associated with the product. Specifically, deleting files that are a part of the Norton Internet Security product may put you system in an unprotected state.
We do have an incident regarding the size of the file in question, and we have addressed that in the next version of the product.
Because the situation was getting a bit urgent with disk space on my C drive, I took a chance and did the following which resolved the problem for me:
1) Booted in safe mode.
2) Deleted both files in question.
3) Restarted computer.
The good news is that when the machine restarted, NIS recreated (as I hoped it would) the file two files in question and seemed to simply "start over" with new (much smaller) .db file. Now, since I did this maneuver Thursday (4/15/10) evening, the .db file has grown to about 15Mb. This means it is adding about 5Mb/day. And, it appears that NIS makes a backup copy of the file each night - which doubles the amount of space this function needs.
I will continue to monitor this directory and files sizes and from time to time perform the necessary cleanup. I look forward to NIS taking care of this problem in the future.