Norton Ghost 15 File and Folder Suggestions, Critiques, and More Suggestions ...and Rich Text Editor >:(
Sorry, that's the actual title ^ but titles have much more effect in Google's index. I needed to keep the important tags so that this post could be easily searchable.
I have forever despised the entire line of overpriced, proprietary software being mass-marketed by Symantec, Not because of lack of feature, but rather, the way the products are presented to the "average" customer. They were intended to be user-friendly, but the way I see it, it's quite the opposite: not enough documentation, not taking into consideration the product from an end user's point-of-view while designing, inefficiency, etc.
Anyway, enough about my personal views... I didn't come here exclusively to bash on the company. :)
I'm a frequent user of Norton Ghost 15 (NG15), and it has done exceptionally well for my drive backups, but recently I had started running low on disk space, so I wanted to clear out old backup data. I had all these file and folder (FBF) backups sitting around munching on my free space. I wanted to get rid of them. Now, the question became the "how" in achieving this monumental feat (explained in a second). NG15 offers a built-in feature to clear unwanted FULL IMAGE backups (e.g. C:\ D:\ drives), but nothing in regards to the specific FBF backups. Even the user manual does not offer guidance on this issue. I thought, wow, certainly not surprised considering it's Norton! So, when in doubt, where does the home user turn to during the dark ages of tech-savviness... where else, but Google. A couple of searches later, it was evident that deleting the File Backup Data folder (containing .fbf / fbfFiles_ folders) in Windows Explorer was sufficient.
Criticism #1
-No tool inside software for deleting FBF backups.
Let me get this straight. There's support inside NG15 for deleting entire images (.v2i), but to delete entire FBF backups, you need to do this manually?
-Not easy to find tool inside software for deleting FBF backups.
I take that back. Actually, manually deleting is not the only way as I found out later (more Google searches).
Criticism #1a
-Efficiency of built-in FBF deletion functionality.
You can delete them by using a simple, easy, and efficient method, explained in the NG15 Help dialogues .
First, open the recovery tool in Tasks > Recover My Files.
Next, in the left-hand column under Search In, select File and Folder if it is not selected already
Afterwards, leave the Find files to recover: box blank and Click Search
Criticism #1a i.
-The Recover My Files results will not show more than 10,001 files
If your backup consists of 10,002 files or more, you will have to repeat the deletion process below until all files
have been wiped, because the list cannot display more than 10,001 files.
(It's nuisance, I know. But hey, apparently it's by design, right?)
In the search results, select all the files by pressing the Ctrl + a keys
Right click the highlighted files and select Delete from the dropdown menu.
(If your backup contains subfolders, pretty much always, the delete option will be greyed out and unselectable)
Criticism #1a ii.
-Folders are undeleteable in the Recovery My Files window.
To delete all files, we would need to slowly and painstakingly navigate through every single sub folder of the
backup and delete individual files. We can instead, use a totally undocumented workaround:
Press Delete on your keyboard
(As if unofficial methods could get any more simpler than the documented ones!)
Confirm and continue the permanent deletion by pressing Yes when prompted
At this point, if your FBF backup is password protected, you will need to enter the correct password to continue (yes,
deleting files require passwords now, shocker!)
Criticism #1a iii.
-Passwords are required for deletion ...no further comment.
After the deletion process has completed, you may get varied results.
On your hard disk drive, some files in the File Backup Data folder may not have been deleted.
(Which basically means that this whole tutorial has been a waste of time)
Criticism #1a iv.
-For me, the built-in deletion tool behaves awkwardly and some (if not all) of the folders remain undeleted.
It's random as to which folders do not get deleted and causes are unknown.
You may have to go in again and repeat previous steps to get rid of all remaining folders and/or files residing in those folders.
Note: this only applies if you have subfolders in your backup (99% of the time)
SO.... you are FINALLY done. Hopefully, the method wasn't too complicated, and involved only a few easily distinguishable steps. (Are my sarcastic italicizations getting annoying yet?)
At this point, I would have either chosen 1) to delete the FBF backup via Windows Explorer and deleting the entire File Backup Data folder, OR 2) to successfully delete my files through the built-in Recover My Files window.
If the deletion was not successful using 2), we would have been better off starting with 1) anyway, making 2) redundent and an evil, useless, glitchy monster who likes to waste our spare time.
Why is 2) successful and 1) not? Well, that's because by directly deleting the files on your disk, and not through NG15's tool, you have erased the backup files, but not the catalog and history of your files.
In essence, the actual files are gone, but the next time you do a search for newer FBF backups, the results will STILL show your old (deleted) backups. Any attempt to restore these backups will fail, however, since the files are no longer there.
To summarize, the CATALOG which maintains the LIST of names pertaining to currently backed-up files has not been updated/refreshed, so it will still show old entries.
Criticism #2
-The catalog for FBF backups does not automatically re-update without manual intervention.
Unfortunately, we cannot have the best of both worlds in this scenario. We need to either do this the exceptionally tedious and unstable way of using the built-in tool to delete FBF backups, or the simple way externally. If deleted externally, the catalog will not update, as explained above. You will need to update it manually. I'm too lazy to type up how, so...
Instructions by AllenM from a previous forum topic:
Access start menu and type in the word services in the Search box (Windows Vista/Windows 7) or services.msc from the start menu/run box (Windows XP). When the services window comes up please search for the entry for Norton Ghost. Highlight this entry and Stop the service; this option will be located near the top left of the screen.Then go into Windows Explorer to the following path:
C:\ProgramData\Symantec\FileBackup (Windows Vista) or
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\FileBackup (Windows XP)Rename (do NOT delete) the catalog.dat file to something else.
From the Service window, click Start to start the Norton Ghost service again.
Bring up Norton Ghost and select Recover My Files from the Tasks tab.
Then from the File menu select Import Backup Destination. Browse to the parent directory where your File and Folder backups are located. Ghost will now import from scratch all the files and folders you have not removed. This will rebuild the catalog.dat file you previously renamed.
Allen
Thanks Allen! Now that our catalog is back to normal, we have successfully completed the process of deleting FBF backups! Or have we? If you go to the Advanced > Backup History, you will see the list of previous FBF backups. This is a design “on purpose”, because it is afterall, the history. But if you’re an indvidual like me who likes to keep everything organized, you may be scratching your head at the sight of the backup history and wanting to delete it. If you have tons and tons of FBF backups that were deleted, the list may be so cluttered that you have trouble navigating to the real backups. To remove these entries would require manual intervention again.
Criticism #3
-Unable to clear FBF backup history without manual intervention.
To clear the history, you will want to delete/rename the FileFolder.ffh file in the History folder. I’ve edited Allen’s instructions from above to detail this process.
Access start menu and type in the word services in the Search box (Windows Vista/Windows 7) or services.msc from the start menu/run box (Windows XP). When the services window comes up please search for the entry for Norton Ghost. Highlight this entry and Stop the service; this option will be located near the top left of the screen.
(Please note, it’s also advisable to finish any current NG15 tasks and close any existing Norton Ghost windows before continuing)
Then go into Windows Explorer to the following path:
C:\ProgramData\Symantec\Norton Ghost\History (Windows Vista) or
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Norton Ghost\History (Windows XP)Rename (do NOT delete) the FileFolder.ffh to something else.
(Be sure to turn on extensions in Windows Explorer folder options)
I renamed it to FileFolder.ffh.oldFrom the Service window, click Start to start the Norton Ghost service again.
The FileFolder.ffh file you previously renamed will rebuild once you start a new file and folder backup.
This also clears the history chart of existing entries for any file and folder backups in the Status window.
I haven’t tested whether undeleted FBF backups will retain history after deleting the history file.
I assume they will not, so it’s either have all previous history gone, or all history present.
Overview…
Criticism
-No tool inside software for deleting FBF backups.
-Not easy to find tool inside software for deleting FBF backups.
-Efficiency of built-in FBF deletion functionality.
-The Recover My Files results will not show more than 10,001 files
-Folders are undeleteable in the Recovery My Files window.
-Passwords are required for deletion …no further comment.
-For me, the built-in deletion tool behaves awkwardly and some (if not all) of the folders remain undeleted.
-The catalog for FBF backups does not automatically re-update without manual intervention
-Unable to clear FBF backup history without manual intervention.
Norton Ghost 15’s File and folder backup is a crappy feature.
My suggestions…
Please, please, please, get rid of the FBF and implement a new feature for files/folders. The existing one has too many bugs or inconveniences to be of any good use. This may not even be possible, but why can’t the full image feature be modified to only back up specific files/folders, and then redesign it to keep multiple file versions. This way, they can be mounted onto virtual drives too?
If this isn’t a top priority, then please consider updating the help manual or documentation to provide the necessary information to use Norton Ghost to its full extent. You can use all the information I’ve typed up here, or another good source found here (especially the last post):
“Purging Backup History of (now) non-existent File and Folder backups”
Also, I’m sure a lot of people turn their attentions to Google when attempting to solve problems on the computer. The thread below is the top search result when searching for how to clear the backup history. Unfortunately, it does not provide a solution, unlike the informative thread above. If a moderator could edit (and/or sticky) it to provide instructions, it would benefit a lot of people who may simply give up after reading it. It’s locked for normal users, so I couldn’t post on it.
“Norton Ghost 15 - How to clear Backup History”
For now, I’ll still be using Ghost 15 for normal full image backups, because it offers great functionality (compressed, mountable, offsite, recovery disk, etc.), but something else (I’m thinking WinRar) for specific file/folders. I’d like to see an improved UI and functionality/support for FBFs (if it’s not taken out completely) in the future.
Ghost 16? Well, I’ll be here waiting.
Hope you had a blast reading this.
Thanks 