This morning I replaced the McAfee tool with 360 and everything seemed good in the world. Then this afternoon I got an alert from 360 that it encountered an error (something like the 3048, 3 error, but I can't recall specifically). I copied the error to the clipboard for later use (should have notepadded it). Following the alert's instructions, it advised me to download and install the Norton Power Eraser and run it. I did and that's when it hit the fan. Upon restart I got the BSOD and there's no way to boot it, even Safe Mode won;t work. Needless to say I'm miffed. I see no way to recover, as this is a VM and screwing up the VMDK file is pretty much the kiss of death.
I would caution anyone to beware of this so called power eraser, because it certainly seems to be capable of destroying your machine. The fool that programmed the popup advising its use should be shot too, just for good measure. I think the smarter approach should have been to advise calling support for further advice.
This morning I replaced the McAfee tool with 360 and everything seemed good in the world.
My first question is how was McAfee removed? It should have been removed via Conrtol Panel and then the McAfee removal tool should have been run (Step 2 under Solution in this link: http://service.mcafee.com/FAQDocument.aspx?id=TS101331 . This should have been done prior to installing N 360. Yes, I am aware that N 360's install may have flagged McAfee as having to be removed and that N 360 would remove it. But sometimes the removal is not enough - it needs to removal tool as well.
Then this afternoon I got an alert from 360 that it encountered an error (something like the 3048, 3 error, but I can't recall specifically). I copied the error to the clipboard for later use (should have notepadded it). Following the alert's instructions, it advised me to download and install the Norton Power Eraser and run it.
Per the latest changes to the Knowledge Base articles and troubleshooting that is exactly what is suggested. IMHO - I do not agree with that as the Norton Power Eraser is a very strong tool and should not be used without a warning to that effect and also should not be used by someone who is not aware of that.
Which states in the 3rd paragraph: Norton Power Eraser uses aggressive methods to detect threats, and there is a risk that it can select some legitimate programs for removal. You should carefully review the scan results page before removing files.
I did and that's when it hit the fan. Upon restart I got the BSOD and there's no way to boot it, even Safe Mode won;t work. Needless to say I'm miffed. I see no way to recover, as this is a VM and screwing up the VMDK file is pretty much the kiss of death.
I am far from being knowledgable of the workings of a VM, ut the NPE does have a rstore function you can check out:
I would caution anyone to beware of this so called power eraser, because it certainly seems to be capable of destroying your machine. The fool that programmed the popup advising its use should be shot too, just for good measure. I think the smarter approach should have been to advise calling support for further advice.
I agree 100 %. I have brought this up with Norton that there are other ways to approach these type of situations - other than running the NPE as a first step. Back when - the NPE was cautioned as being a "last choice - when nothing else works" and the caution was always included about being extremely careful of what you let it delete - now it has come full circle to using it all the time - almost as an on-demand scanner that is is not intended to be.
Well maybe calling the programmer a fool for coding such behavior was a bit harsh, it actually falls on the head of whomever made the decision to codify that functionality. And yes, they are a fool. I can't believe anyone in their right mind would sanction using a poweruser tool as the right tool for all problems. Educate, educate, educate your support people for goodness sakes, and your project managers.
I'm not a newbie at computing, development or Norton, I've been at this for longer than most of you have been alive. I think the 1st Norton utility I used was back in the mid 80s. I'm a staunch Norton evangelist from the git-go. I did the removal through the control panel, going through the chain of dependent pieces of McAfee's tools. I wasn't aware they had a removal tool however, my bad.
That said, there's not really a way to use the Power Eraser to undo its fiddlings...I can't boot the machine. So now I'm looking to 'fix' the system with an XP install disk. Failing that I still have the imaged PC file to restore from, but that's about a year old and I'd rather not take it back that far.
I hear ya, my oldest granddaughter turns 22 this year.
My oldest granddaughter was 22 in May of this year!
The real reason I posted was because there is a Norton Bootable Recovery Tool that may be useful to get you bck into your system : http://security.symantec.com/nbrt/nbrt.aspx
This morning I replaced the McAfee tool with 360 and everything seemed good in the world. Then this afternoon I got an alert from 360 that it encountered an error (something like the 3048, 3 error, but I can't recall specifically). I copied the error to the clipboard for later use (should have notepadded it). Following the alert's instructions, it advised me to download and install the Norton Power Eraser and run it. I did and that's when it hit the fan. Upon restart I got the BSOD and there's no way to boot it, even Safe Mode won;t work. Needless to say I'm miffed. I see no way to recover, as this is a VM and screwing up the VMDK file is pretty much the kiss of death.
I would caution anyone to beware of this so called power eraser, because it certainly seems to be capable of destroying your machine. The fool that programmed the popup advising its use should be shot too, just for good measure. I think the smarter approach should have been to advise calling support for further advice.
