We recently updated to Norton 360 Online Version 4.0.0.127 although we were having this problem with the previous version as well - We wanted to backup to the CD/DVD drive however it's not listed under the "where" option (only our C drive, recover drive, and external drive are listed). I searched this problem on this forum and found a similar posting with an earlier version, however the listed fix didn't fix it (GEAR driver). The drive works absolutely fine for everything else. It also should be stated we are running Vista Home Premium SP2.
We were recently hit with the Control Center virus but I've gotten rid of that completely and we are virus free - I don't think it has anything to do with the problem but I thought I'd mention it anyway, especially since we hadn't tried doing a backup before the virus either so I'm unsure as to whether it's always been a problem.
If the optical drive is not capable of burning a CD/DVD then it will not show up in the backup's "where" option. Can you please verify if that is the case or not?
Thanks for the welcome. I went ahead and uninstalled the GEAR drivers for a fresh start the reinstalled them, restarted the computer, and went to the second link. At first it didn't work (turns out it was because I wasn't using IE) but I was able to download it - unfortunately, after another restart the drive is still missing from there "where" list. It still works fine with everything else, just not this one it seems.
It's an HL-DT-ST-DVDRAM GH20NS10 ATA Device, came with the Medion we have. (Is that the information you were looking for? I just checked the device manager, there's nothing stated on the tower).
I am sorry that you are experiencing this problem.
Could you please try to locate the file "DIFxInstallLog.txt" on your machine and PM me with the contents? I beleive it is located either in the x86 or x64 sub dirs of C:\Program Files\Norton 360\Engine\<version_number>, where <version_number> is the version number of N360 that was installed.
After checking the KBase article, here is what I found:
GearAspi.dll and GearAspiWDM.sys are both in their designated areas
GearAspiWDM.sys is not listed under the driver file details (I tried to force it to look in the folder again, but it pretty much just says everything is up to date and the optimal driver is being used)
GEARAspiWDM is not listed under Class Upper Filters (I've no lower or upper filters in the particular registry section, by the way. I'm not entirely sure if that matters. I did, however, follow the link listed on this article to add upper filters, but it just made my CD/DVD drive not work at all, so I undid that. The link was http://www.gearsoftware.com/wiki/index.php?title=CD/DVD_drives_disappearing_due_to_incorrect_registry_entry )
I checked msinfo32 and there is an entry for GearAspiWDM and the status is okay, however it is not started. That doesn't sound very good - is there a way to start it? I tried double clicking it and right clicking it (like in services.msc) but it was a no go. Nothing happened, so I don't think I can really start or stop anything in there. It's set to manual as well, if that makes a difference.
That doesn't work. I tried the Fix It solution but it didn't really do anything (the drive works fine for everything but Norton. It can burn, read, dance... everything. That's also what the Fix It solution said, that there wasn't a problem recognised). With the "Fix it myself" solution - I don't have any listings in the registry for UpperFilters or LowerFilters so that wouldn't work.
Unfortunately, I don't think that's the issue. After following the second link (second question) I followed the directions for the registry, but SPTD isn't listed which I believe means it's not on my computer. If I'm wrong, don't hesitate to tell me, but I don't use Daemon or Alcohol, or anything else that seems to use SPTD (That I'm aware of).
Thanks for posting that question - I don't know how I forgot that iTunes had been giving me this stupid registry error.
I have iTunes, Nero, (windows burns of course) and... that's it I think. Anyway, I fixed the problem by using the following steps I found from this place: Tech Geek and More
1 > Closed iTunes
2 > Downloaded and installed newest GEAR Driver (Which I already had, btw, and it hadn't worked before either)
3 > Edited Registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} by adding a new multi string called UpperFilters with the value of GEARAspiWDM and pressed enter (had done this before as well and it hadn't worked, just made my drive disappear)
4 > Went to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers and changed AFS.SYS to AFS.TXT (this is the part that worked)
5 > Restarted
I shortened the steps but it's outlined in the site I listed (it's not my fix). Thank you all for helping. Norton sees the CD/DVD drive and iTunes doesn't give me a useless error.
Unfortunatly this fix did not work for me. The upper filter setting is already there and I have no afs.sys file on my computer. The software that can burn cd are Roxio Creator DE 9, Sony Sonic Stage and itunes.
Unfortunatly this fix did not work for me. The upper filter setting is already there and I have no afs.sys file on my computer. The software that can burn cd are Roxio Creator DE 9, Sony Sonic Stage and itunes.
Regarding:
3 > Edited Registry entry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} by adding a new multi string called UpperFilters with the value of GEARAspiWDM and pressed enter (had done this before as well and it hadn't worked, just made my drive disappear)
I thought the classic fix along these lines was to delete the upper and lower filter entries and let Windows recreate them when you reboot the computer ....
See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982116 which behind the link given by Pieter but gives the manual edit of the registry and not just the FixIt tool -- not what it says if there is no Lower filter entry -- they can't fix it!