My Norton 360 v. 20.4.0.40 (WindowsXP, 80gb hard drive with 71gb available) is having major backup issues and I am seeing a lot of similar situations going on out here. First started having problems with backup not completing in the regular Norton360 window; I have backed up to my hard drive up til now due to slow dialup connection that made online backup impractical. Having recently changed my connection to broadband I recently began to get low disk space warnings, and after a long string of attempts to recover hard drive space by deleting unnecessary files and programs, managed to regain 5GB of space on my 71GB hard drive (it got as low as 40kb!!!). Then lo and behold, two days later back to next to nothing, ie 200mb of hard drive space left. WTH. After extensive searching and researching and googling and downloading ExplorerXP freeware to look for for unusually large file sizes, I found the culprit (as suspected) in the N360_backup folder: a large folder with a temporary-sounding file name that was a whopping (for my system) 38GB. There it is.
Tried to delete it via ExplorerXP but it ws being sent to Recycle Bin, and nothing was showing up there while the app was appearing to hang while indicating it was deleting. So stopped and regrouped, then decided it would probably be prudent to try to backup to Norton online storage before deleting anything else in that folder. I have tried three times now to backup to online storage after activating my free 2GB storage; not sure if this is sufficient space for what I need but really don't think I have much more than that and no idea how to check the size of my backed up files and folders. The error message I am getting when it fails says "There is a backup problem. Make sure the destination drive or device is connected then try again." This when it is set for online backup. I searched that error message on Norton Support and it said to create a new backup set with a new name so did that, made sure destination was online backup, and then tried it again, again same result. So at this point am contemplating getting a flash drive with 8GB just to get some sort of backup before I try to delete this humongous file. My computer is obviously not functioning well with a full disk, and now not only that but when I try to open my Windows Live Mail, IT tells me it can't find message stores, have they been moved? and won't open, so I can't even work to delete old emails to free up space. NOW WHAT.
Just completely disillusioned by the troubles present and past I have had with Norton360 and while I know it is a good security program and liked the fact that I was able to set it to backup automatically since I am not good about doing backups, now it has backfired on me and created a whole new set of problems to the point of literally disabling my business computer. Just thankful I can still use the browser and access the Internet for my email and other tasks like looking for help.
Any assistance in deleting that huge (for me) file would be greatly appreciated; I am exploring other online storage options in the meantime. But Norton online storage is not working at all and from what I am seeing out here with problems with THAT, I am not sure that's the best solution either. I really don't think my backups should take up more than 2GB and don't want to spend a bunch of money on something that might not work to get more storage space. But any help with this issue would be appreciated because I have lost SO much time trying to figure out how to fix it on my own. I am hearing-impaired and can't hear on the phone to call Support so that is a hindrance as well. THANKS...
Hello Andmike, YES it does! Thanks! Ironically, I have managed to figure out exactly those things that you have mentioned so your message is confirmation that I am doing the right thing lol. I had wanted to backup before doing this delete but took a gamble and got it started...with the intention of backing up immediately after purging the old backup set, or at least the huge file with the temporary-like name. I DO know that it is not a good idea to backup to C drive but had it set up that way until I could figure out where else to back up to. Wish I hadn't done that obviously but as you can see the system is still functional enough that I can hopefully remedy all of this. Is a flash drive an acceptable backup device? Assuming big enough space. I suppose it would have to be done manually and regularly at least until I can look into an external hard drive.
But basically to summarize the issues for you: Norton 360 backup can't complete (was set to run automatically), hard disk is mysteriously full and so while I was searching my system for large space-eating files (with Explorer XP, since Windows Explorer wasn't showing me file sizes) I discovered a huge 38gb folder in the N360_backup folder with a string of letters and numbers between brackets for its name. SI after doing some research out here and seeing that it is not an uncommon occurrence with N360 backups to the disk, decided to delete the old backups and start over. THis is where I encountered the trouble with the attempted switch to Online backup as I did not want to delete anything without backing up first.
I did discover that the Recycle bin could be bypassed and am now deleting the suspect folder as I type. I am not sure what happened before when I tried it last and it did not appear to be deleting, but thinking it had to do with the Recycle bin, which in fishing around its properties I discovered it wouldn't hold more that a few gigs of data, and here I was trying to delete 38gb. Should I just delete the whole backup folder N360_backup then? Right now I am deleting the 38gb folder that had a temporary name, that IN the N360_backup folder (there is another folder called C: with about 3gb in it, guessed that was a letgit backup file). I also did discover that by clicking Manage backup sets in Norton360 window it would count out the size of the file, and as it was, it was around 8gb of data so that may also explain the online backup failure since the max there is 2gb. So at this point since $40 for 10 gb is a bit much for me and probably not enough space, plus don't want to subscribe, will look at some alternative external devices.
So after having spent a lot of time investigating this in various relevant forum posts, your remarks make perfect sense and confirm what I thought I should do..thanks!! I am hoping that the WIndows Live Mail issue was related to the full disk but if not have some solutions to THAT standing by...my email goes to 3 different computers in addition to the server's website so not too worried about the message store; hopefully I will at least be able to recover my contacts. Just crossing my fingers there is nothing critical in the file that i am deleting! I am thinking I don't want to delete the whole backup folder until the rest of the system has been backed up again elsewhere. A bit of a risky jump to just hit delete I'm sure but just need to get some disk space back to be able to deal with these things. Not sure why so much data ended up in that one folder but seem to recall seeing something about incomplete backups (as happens when programs being backed up were in use) so that might be the culprit.
At any rate you have me convinced I definitely need to get backed up outside of the hard disk. Thanks for taking the time to explain all of this!!
My Norton 360 v. 20.4.0.40 (WindowsXP, 80gb hard drive with 71gb available) is having major backup issues and I am seeing a lot of similar situations going on out here. First started having problems with backup not completing in the regular Norton360 window; I have backed up to my hard drive up til now due to slow dialup connection that made online backup impractical. Having recently changed my connection to broadband I recently began to get low disk space warnings, and after a long string of attempts to recover hard drive space by deleting unnecessary files and programs, managed to regain 5GB of space on my 71GB hard drive (it got as low as 40kb!!!). Then lo and behold, two days later back to next to nothing, ie 200mb of hard drive space left. WTH. After extensive searching and researching and googling and downloading ExplorerXP freeware to look for for unusually large file sizes, I found the culprit (as suspected) in the N360_backup folder: a large folder with a temporary-sounding file name that was a whopping (for my system) 38GB. There it is.
Tried to delete it via ExplorerXP but it ws being sent to Recycle Bin, and nothing was showing up there while the app was appearing to hang while indicating it was deleting. So stopped and regrouped, then decided it would probably be prudent to try to backup to Norton online storage before deleting anything else in that folder. I have tried three times now to backup to online storage after activating my free 2GB storage; not sure if this is sufficient space for what I need but really don't think I have much more than that and no idea how to check the size of my backed up files and folders. The error message I am getting when it fails says "There is a backup problem. Make sure the destination drive or device is connected then try again." This when it is set for online backup. I searched that error message on Norton Support and it said to create a new backup set with a new name so did that, made sure destination was online backup, and then tried it again, again same result. So at this point am contemplating getting a flash drive with 8GB just to get some sort of backup before I try to delete this humongous file. My computer is obviously not functioning well with a full disk, and now not only that but when I try to open my Windows Live Mail, IT tells me it can't find message stores, have they been moved? and won't open, so I can't even work to delete old emails to free up space. NOW WHAT.
Just completely disillusioned by the troubles present and past I have had with Norton360 and while I know it is a good security program and liked the fact that I was able to set it to backup automatically since I am not good about doing backups, now it has backfired on me and created a whole new set of problems to the point of literally disabling my business computer. Just thankful I can still use the browser and access the Internet for my email and other tasks like looking for help.
Any assistance in deleting that huge (for me) file would be greatly appreciated; I am exploring other online storage options in the meantime. But Norton online storage is not working at all and from what I am seeing out here with problems with THAT, I am not sure that's the best solution either. I really don't think my backups should take up more than 2GB and don't want to spend a bunch of money on something that might not work to get more storage space. But any help with this issue would be appreciated because I have lost SO much time trying to figure out how to fix it on my own. I am hearing-impaired and can't hear on the phone to call Support so that is a hindrance as well. THANKS...
You raise a couple of questions, which I will try and respond to.
" Is a flash drive an acceptable backup device?" - I think it can be if it is big enough. If you are going to remove it between backups (a good safety move) then backup does need to be manual but that goes for any external backup that is not via a network of some kind. Size will be a determining factor. In my view it really needs to be more than twice the size of that shown by "Preview" (so in your case at least 16 Gb!). This is to allow for the case where a complete second backup is added over the top of the first - I know this should not happen but it does...
"Should I just delete the whole backup folder N360_backup then? Right now I am deleting the 38gb folder that had a temporary name, that IN the N360_backup folder (there is another folder called C: with about 3gb in it, guessed that was a letgit backup file). " - Yes in your circumstances (as I understand them) I would delete the whole folder. When you refer to "a temporary name" do you mean something like "{042A7A92-7B84-4250-8E78-C82C3956B756}"? This is the format used by Norton to name its backup sets there is nothing temporary about it! As far as I am aware all folders in the N360_BACKUP folder should be so named. I have no idea what the folder "C:" is (you might like to look in it) but if Preview says your backup should be 8 Gb then I don't see how "C:" can contain it if it is only 3 Gb.
I am inclined to agree with you about the value of paying for online backup as in any case backing up 8 Gb online would take quite a long time even with a good internet connection. You might however like to look at the "What" part for your backup set under Manage Backup Sets, to see if you are backing up the right files and only the right files. A review might give you a smaller and more manageable backup. On the other hand you may find that some files you thought should be backed up are not included...
Good luck. Feel free to come back if you think you need to.
Thanks!! That is what I needed to know. Just now getting this message since for some reason all the notifications are going to spam despite marking them "not spam". Will fix that later.
The delete of the large backup set folder was successful; I am going to follow your advice and delete the N360_backup folder, then run backup to another source if I can find something big enough.
The problem I am having now is that somehow, prior to deleting that 38gb file, my Windows Live Mail has suddenly lost its message store (or lost its location anyway) and I am trying to figure out how to fix it; clicking Repair in add or remove programs (I have XP) didn't work so uninstall/reinstall is next logical step, but I am worried about losing all my old messages. So my gut feeling is don't do anything until I backup the files again and have a copy.
As far as the size of the backup, yes I think there may be some files that don't need to be included and need to go through the list to see that the ones I want ARE. Just finally learned how to look at them in detail so will put that on the list of things to do...at this point just anxious to get a backup SOMEplace before trying to fix my Windows Live Mail; not sure what happened there but it seems to have occurred after I ran CHKDSK with automatic error fix. I have done so many things trying to get my disk space back I am afraid something critical might have been deleted but guessing they are there somewhere and the program is corrupt. My restore points all disappeared too so couldn't do a system restore (WTH!!) ; probably going to point to SpeedyPC as the culprit since that was the first thing I tried to reclaim hard drive space before discovering the monster file in N360_Backup. Wondering if maybe I should try CHKDSK again. With the newly-freed up disk space (53% of the drive, YEAH) I was finally able to defragment as well. So been spending some time on the Microsoft forums trying to figure THAT out, seeing the same problem in a lot of posts with no viable solutions; everyone is saying 1) try to repair and 2) uninstall/reinstall and no one is getting the problem solved. When I try to open LIve Mail it tried to recover the message store and then says it can't open because it can't locate the message store. Just vexing, all of this.
So if I delete the N360_backup file it should create a new backup file wherever I backup to, right?
Thank you so much for taking the time to address all of my questions! It really helps to have someone knowledgeable to consult!
The N360_backup folder contains a subfolder called Drive_C, under which there is Documents and Settings, and various user subfolders. The Drive_C folder is 1.83GB and here is what I think THAT is: all of the files contained under it are dated 2008 as last date modified so guessing it may be an old backup file, maybe from an earlier version? And the jumbo file I deleted was likely backup upon backup upon backup...maybe parital backups that did not complete or something. Since yes, it did have a name like the Norton formatted backup set names. There are however two other items in the N360_backup folder with the Drive_C: one is backup.@db and the other is DiscID.dat; both very small.
Personally I would not run CHKDSK again until I had sorted out the Mail issue as well as I could. If you just use it to check the files then it does not get you far if you use it to correct things then it changes them and may make it more difficult to recover anything that has been inadvertently lost.
As for backup.@db and DiscID.dat - they should occur in every backup folder and are working data for the backup/recovery. If you are not saving this old backup they can go.
Once you have removed the N360_BACKUP folder then any fresh backup will be a full one to the location you choose. However you may like to look at the Manage Backup sets to see if you have more than one backup set prepared and ready to go. It does not greatly matter if you have more than one but it helps to keep things simple and make sure you are happy with the WHAT: and WHERE parts of the set before you start it.
Good luck with your backup and with your Mail problems where I am definitely not the person to help you. ;-)
Haha, that's ok, on the Mail. Pain in the a** if you ask me. I think I have located the missing database but I am clueless what to do about it. The Microsoft Support website is a nightmare trying to find a solution to anything. If I wasn't so partial to keeping old emails around I'd just say to heck with it and take the plunge to uninstall. But that would be reckless.
Advice well taken on holding off on CHKDSK. I just wonder if the too-full hard drive situation when I ran it before made it fix something that wasn't broken, and now it is. Might be a good time to talk to my computer tech nephew.
But I will keep you posted on how it all pans out.
Well I am STILL struggling with backup issues. Finally got the hard drive cleared of the monster file and have regained almost 38GB of 71 total. Bought a 32GB flash drive for temporary backup; I am still fighting the Windows Live Mail issue and don't want to try uninstall/reinstall until I have a full backup done of my system.
I have been running backup to the flash drive for over 48 hours now, since Tuesday 9/3. 12GB of the flash drive has been used. Throughout this time I have been watching the backup progress window and it continually hangs, then resumes; stupidly did not go over the default backup set files to narrow them down before starting backup but got through one large file of images (a print-ordering program in Program Files that I use for my framing business). Now, however, it is hung up on a tiny file called C:\search013.bmp and repeated manual pausing and restarting the backup (which worked with the other files to get it moving again) is doing nothing; it is just frozen on that file. It is at 99% copied and I am at the end of my rope; don't want to cancel and have to start over and wait three more days for it to finish backing up. But at this point it looks like it is failing anyway. Should I cancel and start over? Or wait? :(
On backup progress window the Default Backup Set Status is "Running"; under the file icon upper right it says paused; under the file/magnifying glass upper left (above the progress bar which was at 99% copied) it says copying. The flash drive is glowing like it's idle; it flickers when files are backing up and you can see the progression at the top of the progress window. NOW WHAT.
What you are reporting sound most odd - if anyone else has any ideas please feel free to jump into this thread.
I cannot understand why a backup of what you said in an earlier post should be 8 Gb is taking so long. Unless you have other programs running at the same time or your power settings are shutting the device down during the backup process.
Given the extra time since your post, if the backup still thinks it is running now then I would just cancel it. If you do that then check on the size of the file that has been left on the flash drive and compare it with what Preview says it should have been. Post the answers back here. Similarly if the backup thinks it has finished.
Either way it has taken too long and you may like to ensure that before you run the backup again no other programs are running (this is one of the reasons why I like to run my backups manually). In the past I have also got the impression that the machine doing an energy saving power down has clashed with the backup and so I have a power setting for use when the backup runs which does not power down. You might like to try this and see if it helps.
If I were you I would also try a direct copy of a large file or folder to the flash drive to see how long it should take to copy. Once the test is done the copied file/s can be deleted. The timing for copying 8 or 12 Gb should be far less than you are experiencing.
By the way the file quoted at the top of the report when the backup is running appears to only be a guide of what is in fact happening. I have noticed that sometimes the backup seems to spend a long time on a small file and have concluded that sometimes, after writing the file name at the top it goes off and does other things, like looking for the next file that has been changed. So I do not see that as a worry. However I would not normally try pausing and restarting the backup. If it has lost its place I see little hope that pausing it will help it find it again.
Finally, another thread has reminded me of the issue of drive allocations. When you set up the backup you will have told the software to back up to a specific drive letter. Plugging in and unplugging flash drives and the like can change the drive letters. Are you sure that no changes of this sort have happened with your machine?
Haha, no, that I am not having an easy time is an understatement. It's my lot in life I think lol. The computer issues are the least of my worries right now; also dealing with the loss of two of our three cars (both engine troubles in cars that aren't worth the money to repair/replace) and the same cat being hospitalized twice in a month for two different afflictions (she is fine, UTI first time and now a bad abscess on her leg). WHEW. haha
OK, back to the problem. Well, now the default backup set preview in Manage Backup Sets is showing 12GB so not sure what wasn't there before. I did finally just cancel the never-ending backup session just after I wrote to you yesterday and it said CANCELLING for another extreme length of time and out of frustration I just closed the backup window (stupid...) to shut it down and start over. But of course then when I tried to open Manage Backup Sets I got an error message that another backup was still running. GROAN. Tried a couple times then finally just rebooted the system (which worked). I figured since it was cancelled and/or aborted, the cancelled backup was probably corrupt or incomplete anyway, so I am deleting the backup file from the flash drive now to start over. But it DID show 12GB space used by N360_backup folder on the flash drive (F:) after all that so I am assuming the files transferred successfully for the most part. I will try your suggestion, to transfer one good-sized file before trying again.
When I finally was able to look at the default backup set under Manage Backup sets, the very last item on the list was the one that it appeared to be hanging on at 99% copied (C:\search013.bmp). So maybe it was wrapping up the backup and I didn't let it run long enough (finally cancelled after an hour or so at least...). SO. There have been no other flash drives in use throughout this process. I have an older Dell Dimension 2400 desktop and the only other USB device is the printer; the E: drive is the CD-DVD RW drive but it is the same bay and device as D:, the CD-ROM drive. So doubt there's any drive-shifting. However I noticed that the SanDisk Cruzer flash drive appeared to be in standby (glows on and off slowly vs activity-related flickering) at the times when the backup appeared to be at a standstill. I don't have my system set to enter powersaving mode automatically so I don't think that would be the issue either. I would think that if it was actively copying something or searching something it would appear as activity on the flashdrive indicator? Plus this was an initial backup so should not be looking for changes yet. Just flumoxed by all of this, and I am glad that I have found you out here to bounce everything off of! lol But it occurred to me that perhaps it's a problem with the USB ports on the front of the CPU? I have my printer connected there and have noticed that it can't detect the printer unless I unplug it and plug it back in after startup; also have had issues with photo transfers from my camera not work at those ports on occasion as well so it just occurred to me that that might be relevant??
What I need is a good external hard drive, and the money to buy one. But let me fiddle with it some more; I will see if there is another USB port on the back of the CPU; worth a try. The backup deletion is going smoothly, it appears; still running (it's been going for about an hour and a half now).
One other question. It did occur to me that other programs running might be interfering with the backup. Would that just be apps like Firefox? That is really the only thing I have running aside from email but of course there are probably other things running in the background. And email doesn't run at all right now so that is not an issue. But will try to run the backup tonight with all but the Norton Windows closed. Also was able to isolate the folder that seemed to be taking a long time to copy (the Art Explorer I mentioned earlier); it is a whopping 3GB so am going to exclude it for now because I don't really use it at the moment; it's a print company catalog and ordering app. Gotta get some framing done for my customers as I have spent way too much time on this this week and falling behind...I'm a one-woman business so gotta delegate myself. haha. But if it takes me a little while to respond, don't despair. I will follow up for sure!! THANKS.
Just remembered something else I noticed when I was running the never-ending backup. I keep the Task Manager open to see what is using the CPU when it's running slow and noticed that there were two ccsvchst.exe. processes running, one under SYSTEM and one under AA Sue (my user profile). Will quit the pause/restart thing next time but if it sheds any light on this, those two processes seemed directly related to each other during the backup and I know that they are Norton processes from past issues with ccsvchst.exe processes taking the entire CPU to 100%. That said, when running backup, the one under AA Sue would drop to zero CPU when I hit pause (so assumed that was the backup process) and simultaneously the other would run up to 97 or some other CPU-hogging percentage; when backup was restarted the AA Sue would take over higher CPU use and the two would go back and forth percentage wise but between them, were keeping the CPU at close to Max. So wonder if Norton360 itself is interfering??? Or if my system just doesn't have enough RAM or whatever to handle it? Seems to happen a lot, the ccsvchst.exe hogging the CPU, making everything else stand still. I had a lot of problems updating via LiveUpdate awhile back that I think were related to the dialup connection I had for a long time, but have since switched to broadband and things are going much faster and updating as they should. But now wondering if that also might be relevant??? More to ponder...
Good luck with your new trial. You asked about Firefox, yes I think that is something it is worth closing during the backup. And I think it is best to leave the backup to get on with itself, don't watch it and try not to interfere...
You also mention running Task Manager while it was running. Now that is also something that you can close down....
I believe that the multiple ccsvchst's are signs of Norton working but Norton should cope with Norton so do not worry.
Good luck and I hope that next time we hear it will be with a clean 9 Gb backup in place. ;-)
haha thanks...she is only one of five but has had her share of troubles recently. Actually she is the mama of three of the others. And that is her name, Mama. :) Noticed your cat avatar after I sent that last msg. :D
OK, gonna shut everything running down before I leave and let it run overnight. That way I won't be tempted to tinker with it lol...hopefully it will decide it's time to behave!!
OK, sorry, it's taking me awhile to get the actual backup re-attempt done because I have to use the computer when I am here during my business hours. I did run a trial backup on a 2GB file on Saturday (with all programs closed), and it backed up successfully to F: (flash drive). When I created a new default backup set, it is now showing 7.7 GB so not sure why the original default backup set was 12, and that backup set somehow disappeared, too, when I went to select default backup set to try the full backup. The only backup set on the drop-down list was the 2GB trial one I had just run. Hmmm. So just created a new backup set and named it default backup set and ran a preview with selected sources and file types. I think it will do. Probably will have to run overnight but the 2GB backup probably took about 5 hours; had to leave before it was done but it got to 91% copied in 4 hours. So it SHOULD finish overnight...or at least by the next morning. Still pretty slow... so stay tuned.
YAY! Backup was finally successful,and finished in reasonable time. Flash drive shows the appropriate size file.
One more question for now before turning back to the Windows Live Mail issue. When I run future backups (default backup set) does Norton360 use the backup set I just created and ran, and make changes where detected? So if I do manual backups and just select default backup set, it won't make a whole nother backup file all over again but will backup changes that have occurred since, right?
I would recommend that you go to Manage Backup Sets and ensure that you only have one backup set listed there. If it still shows the trial set that you used previously (not the successful one that has just completed) then remove it. If you do not then Norton will nag you after a period, saying that the trial set is overdue. Also if that backup is still on the Flash drive, you might like to delete that manually to save space. But this is not necessary.
In future when you run your backup set, N360 should just incrementally add new files from the chosen locations and any backed up files which have changed. .....However,,,,for some reason that I do not understand, N360 backup occasionally does a complete new backup and adds it on top of the old one. If this happens it takes a long time and eats up a lot of backup space. Basically you end up with at least two full backups in one file. This can happen more than once and you can end up with very large files. To guard against this I always have a second backup set ready to start afresh. In your case I would not worry about this at the moment as it would appear that you have other more pressing issues. But you asked and so I have answered as correctly as I can.
The good news is that you have a successful backup, of the data you wanted, saved and can now move on to get other issues sorted.
It's my lot in life I think lol. The computer issues are the least of my worries right now; also dealing with the loss of two of our three cars (both engine troubles in cars that aren't worth the money to repair/replace) and the same cat being hospitalized twice in a month for two different afflictions (she is fine, UTI first time and now a bad abscess on her leg). WHEW. haha
But it occurred to me that perhaps it's a problem with the USB ports on the front of the CPU? I have my printer connected there and have noticed that it can't detect the printer unless I unplug it and plug it back in after startup; also have had issues with photo transfers from my camera not work at those ports on occasion as well so it just occurred to me that that might be relevant?? 