Norton Internet Security Creating Thousands of Error Files

Norton Security | Norton Internet Security
1

Yesterday at 12:30 while I was out Norton Internet Security 2011 started generating what appear to be thousands of error files in the ....\error management\Que\Staging\CCSVCHST.2244 folder.  There are ove 450K files that are .ETL.  Total directory is over 305 Gb.  It filled my hard disk.  Norton did not report any activity in any of the log files. Norton eventually gave a 8504,101 error, delete NAV and reinstall. 

 

I can not seem to delete all of these files.  They take over 2 minutes each to delet, even though they are only 704 Kb each. 


Is this some new virus or a malfunction by Norton?  The uninstall cleaned out most of NIS, but did not delete this directory. 

2

Yesterday at 12:30 while I was out Norton Internet Security 2011 started generating what appear to be thousands of error files in the ....\error management\Que\Staging\CCSVCHST.2244 folder.  There are ove 450K files that are .ETL.  Total directory is over 305 Gb.  It filled my hard disk.  Norton did not report any activity in any of the log files. Norton eventually gave a 8504,101 error, delete NAV and reinstall. 

 

I can not seem to delete all of these files.  They take over 2 minutes each to delet, even though they are only 704 Kb each. 


Is this some new virus or a malfunction by Norton?  The uninstall cleaned out most of NIS, but did not delete this directory. 

3

Thanks for replying Allen,

I am running Windows Vista Ultimate SP-2 (64bit).   I have been running the same version of NIS for months.  I can no longer give you a specific build number since I tried an uninstall per the error message.  It appears to have deinstalled most of Norton, but not these directories.  I was not running a Beta. 

 

All of the files were written out in the course of 6-8 hours while we were across town at TG dinner.  No files written after 10 last night.  I don't know whether the problem had ended or the system stopped because it was out of disk space.

 

After logging in in safe mode I was able to clear out some files from the directory.  I am now in Windows again and deleting the files in batches of ~20 K or so.  At least it will let me work some now that I have freed up some disk space.  This could take all night.

 

I currently have the system off the internet until I clean up the files.  I don't know whether to reinstall NIS or not.

4

I missed one of your questions.  No other security software installed.  I used to run a secondary app, but it conflicted with Norton and I removed it months ago.

5
lee_honnen wrote:

I missed one of your questions.  No other security software installed.  I used to run a secondary app, but it conflicted with Norton and I removed it months ago.

Hi lee_honnen,

 

Thanks for the updates. Which security software did you have before you removed it? Was this other security software installed when you first installed NIS?

 

Having other security software installed at the time could have prevented NIS from being installed cleanly.

 

It does not sound right that it would take so long to remove these files when NIS is not even installed any more. What type and size is your hard drive? You might want to run a "chkdsk /r" on the C drive to make sure there are no problems with it.

 

I would recommend that you run the Norton removal tool before installing NIS again. But before you do this please let me know what the other security software was so that we can run a removal tool for that software as well.

 

You can download the files referenced in the procedure below from another computer so that you don't have to connect your unprotected computer to the internet just yet. You can save the files to a USB HD or USB flash drive or even a CD.

 

If you use Identity Safe you should back up this data first. Please see this link for details on how to do this. This probably does not apply to you since you have already uninstalled NIS.


Before you use the removal tool, please download the full version of NIS 2011 from here. Please note that this is the English version so please let me know if you need a different language and I will provide the appropriate link.

Once you have downloaded NIS, you can proceed with use of the removal tool as indicated below.

Please NOTE that this removes ALL Symantec products so be sure to have your license keys ready as you will need to reinstall all your Symantec software products. You can get your Norton product key from your Norton Account.

Once done please download the Norton Removal Tool from Symantec from this link.


For your protection, disconnect from the Internet before continuing.

 

Do a conventional uninstall of NIS via the Control Panel and then restart your computer. You don't need to do this one since you already have.


Run the Norton Removal Tool and once it is completed, please reboot your computer. Once up please run the Removal Tool one more time and once again reboot.

Then please install NIS 2011 from the full version downloaded earlier. Once installed please reconnect back to the Internet and run Live Update repeatedly (rebooting as requested) until it reports there are no more updates.

 

Again, please hold off installing NIS until we run a removal tool for the other security software you indicated you had before.


Hope this helps.


Best wishes.

Allen

6

Thanks for all the help.

I ran Ad-Aware and Spysweeper for several years in conjunction with NAV and NIS.  NAV used to give alerts on Ad-Aware occasionally so I deinstalled it about a year ago.  No problems since.

 

I finally have all of the files off my computer and manually deleted the directories.  Once I got some room on the disk it did pick up speed in the deletions.  I am running Raid 1 and the mirroring software is just finishing a full check and is not finding any problems with the hard disks.  I just downloaded the files you referenced and will run the removal tool and prepare to install NIS again.

 

Any idea if this was a malfunction or a virus? 

7

Hi lee_honnen,

 

If this is the only problem you are experiencing it is highly unlikely to be any sort of malware. This sounds like a problem with the installation.

 

I'll look forward to results after you run the Norton removal tool and reinstall NIS.

 

Curious, is your RAID 1 hardware controlled or software controlled and is it SATA or other?

 

Best wishes.

Allen

8

I am on a Dell XPS 435.  Serial ATA II Raid 1 with dual 640 GB hard drives.  I am pretty sure it is a hardware controller and then software support.  The software is Intel Matrix Storage Console 8.5      I have been running this system for about 18 months.

 

Thank you for all of your help.  I'll reinstall NIS and post if I see any new problems.

9

Hi lee_honnen,

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Please do let us know how it goes, good or bad.

 

Best wishes.

Allen