I have come to that awful last resort of reinstalling Win 7 Pro (and everything else!) to clear up a host of system problems long in the making, some of which seem to affect NIS but are not caused by NIS. I have three questions.
1 How do I make sure this reinstall is not treated as a new install on another PC for which I may not have a license?
2 Should NIS be the first application to reinstall? Or should something else, like a browser, come first?
3 Is there a way, such as a NIS config file, to preserve all my current NIS settings and import them into the re-installed NIS?
I have come to that awful last resort of reinstalling Win 7 Pro (and everything else!) to clear up a host of system problems long in the making, some of which seem to affect NIS but are not caused by NIS. I have three questions.
1 How do I make sure this reinstall is not treated as a new install on another PC for which I may not have a license?
If you download from your Norton account it shouldn't use an extra activation if you are installing on the same system.
2 Should NIS be the first application to reinstall? Or should something else, like a browser, come first?
I install N360 first, even before installing Windows updates. Leave the browsers until all updates are installed, for your security.
3 Is there a way, such as a NIS config file, to preserve all my current NIS settings and import them into the re-installed NIS?
No, settings can't be saved, then transferred to your new installation.
Thanks for your advice
I suggest you export/backup a copy of your ID Safe data before you begin.
If you had any trial secuirty programs when the computer is new, you will need to thoroughly remove that program using it's removal tool before installing NIS. Download a copy of it's removal tool before you reinstall Windows.
Remember to run Live Update, restarting where required, until no more updates are available.
If you do run into any problems with your subscription contact Customer Support. www.norton.com/chat
Norton uses a number specific to the main board so if you haven’t changed the main board things should be ok. There is the option to delete a user from your licence so that you can put Norton on a different machine.
You’ll need a browser to gain access to the web and the Norton installation function.
I don’t think you can do this if you reinstalling windows you can keep the settings if you install norton with norton on the system, there is the identity safe if you use it that you can export, back up.
Wait a while though to see what other people post.
When you get everything sorted out with the clean reinstall I would suggest very strongly getting imaging software if you do not have it already (and there are some good free utilities for this apart from things like Acronis True Image that I use).
Then after your operating system is reinstalled and all the Windows updates applied make an image of that drive onto an external hard drive; then go ahead and reinstall your Norton and your applications and update them and make another complete image; I am assuming you already have all your data files backed up and can always bring them back but if not consider making a third image after bringing those back into place.
That way when this happens again or when your hard drive crashes -- note the when and not the if because it will happen -- or when things get messed up as you describe it is only a matter of minutes instead of hours to get your system back up and running again.
My Windows 7 Home Premium occupies about 125 GB; making the image takes about 20 minutes and is about 15 - 60 GB according to which of the three stages it is; restoring it to a clean partition takes about 8 minutes. My machine is multiboot with XP and Windows 8 as well as 7 so I run my Acronis TI from a drive that is not the one with the operating system on it but if you only have one operating system you can do the equivalent by booting to the recovery CD you can make after installing TI.
Do think about this before you start the clean reinstallation.
I did do the clean reinstall of Win 7. It went off without incident, and Norton Internet Security reinstalled from my account flawlessly. I was impressed. So far I have reinstalled nearly all of the applications I really need - a humoungus load of other stuff had accumulated over the years. Needless to say I'm not putting it back, at least not unless or until I decide, case by case, that it's really necessary.
I now have a much better working PC. Thanks to all who contributed to my original query.
provided the essential information that downloading from your account should not notch up the activation count.
Perhaps you would care to change the Solved on my message and activate it on his?
I hope you will look at the Imaging of your hard drive -- it's a great insurance policy against all sorts of problems including WHEN you hard drive crashes ...... but of course you have to keep it reasonably uptodate and should back up data files separately and more frequently.
Thanks, Hugh, I have done as you suggested. You are to be commended for giving credit where it is due.
After the Win 7 reinstall I installed Acronis THI 13 and made a C:\ partition image. I'm continuing to set up Acronis to do regular backups of several partitions. Several years ago I lost a hard drive. Bought a new one and a USB-to-SATA device and, using my laptop, was able to completely restore my system on the new drive from the Acronis backup. It really saved my behind. I'm a confirmed backer upper.
I also had a crash and had to reinstall Windows 8. Afterwards I inadvertantly activated a trial version of NIS.
I know I can go to mynortonaccount and download an activated copy of the latest version, and that I'll have to remove the trial using Add/Remove followed by the NRT.
The question I have is while downloading the version from my account can I save it to the desktop and install while offline? I don't want to be on the net without AV protection, so I could download and save and install it while offline.
Any suggestions you have would be much appreciated.
You should be able to use the activation KEY recorded on your account to activate the trial version you have installed if they are the same product -- NIS / NAV / Norton 360 Standard/Premier ... The year does not matter. No need to uninstall / Download and reinstall.
Just open up your MyNortonAccount and find the KEY, copy it with the usual Copy technique and then open up the trial, find Reneew/Subscribe and click on that ..... You should after a brief delay get a bit of blue text saying words to the effect of Have a key already .... Click on that and paste the key in. The system will reformat it if it is one long string of letters and numbers.
There is no point in waiting for the trial to end since the clock is running on your key already if you have used it.