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Norton 360 Backup Issue
I have Norton 360 and have accomplished one successful backup in the beginning onto an external hard drive since my files are too large for the online site. However, when I tried to backup files recently, it appears that all the files are put into .db folders instead of into the 360 backup files and I'm at a loss on what to do.
Can you explain what the @db files are and how I can correct my backup settings to make sure I backup correctly? Also, can these .db files be successfully removed from my external drive?
Thanks for the site - hope to get an answer since I could not seem to get the answer at the Norton site.
Any help is greatly appreciated (since I'm quite a novice at this).
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Re: Norton 360 Backup Issue
Hello. When you create a backup onto an external drive, the Norton 360 will create a folder called N360_BACKUP. There will be your backup inside this folder. It contains the same folders structure like your computer. So, for example, you will have a folder named F:\N360_BACKUP\Drive_C\Users\Jan\Documents.
There are two other files in the N360_BACKUP folder: backup.@db and DiscID.dat. The first file contains a small database with the information about the backed up files. This helps Norton 360 to restore your files if need. The second DAT file contains a short info about the time when your backup was done. So do not remove this two small files.
So what I recommend to you is to check the content of the N360_BACKUP folder and its size. If it is bigger than a few kB, then your backup is here. Hope it helps.
Jan Polzer, Backup HowTo owner
Thank you Jan for explaining
Thank you Jan for explaining the small .@db and DAT files. I now understand them. I do have the N360_BACKUP folder on my L external drive with my files I backed up in February. However, my problem is that when I run a manual back-up now, it doesn't seem that any new files are added to this folder even if I select certain files and folders in the "Manage Backup" window in Norton. Since I have a lot of pictures (scanned and from cameras), music and movie files, I want to make sure they're saved.
After I ran a manual backup, the L drive had numerous folders and files with names such as 61e7f5150b936fb4174f and others that appeared to be .db files that I couldn't open. But no updates were in the N360_BACKUP folder. So I'm still a bit confused and any further help you provide is greatly appreciated. In the meantime, I'm manually saving my photos, music and movies to another external drive.
This is very strange. If you
This is very strange. If you perform the backup to the same destination, the new files should appear. (Try search function in your File Manager) My only advice yet is to contact the Symantec technical support. But you wrote you did it already...
Jan Polzer, Backup HowTo owner
Norton Backup
I have found several issues with Norton - I don't think it is a great back-up program, but then again I have just tried DMAILER BACKUP and it is not great either for different reasons.
HOWEVER, despite my issues with Norton, I am confident it is backing up all my files after having spent some time with Symantec over the phone.
To see the files that have actually backed up, go to the RESTORE option...this will then let you PREVIEW the files that have been backed up and that you can restore (you don't actually have to restore the files, just preview them). This should give you some confidence that the files you hope are backed up actually have been backed up. Unfortunately you will have to scroll down the list of files to see the files you are after OR do a serch for a particular file using the search option.
My issues wih Norton are that
1) I don't think the backup is encrypted 9should you have sensitive files)
2) Symantec tell me that the backup is incremental (only spends time backing up new/changed files) but I am not convinced give the speed of the back-up
3) It's not so user friendly.
If you are doing simple backups, you might fight DMAILER BACKUP V3 (Free of the Dmailer website) easier to use and this will give you clear visibility of what has actually been backed up, in the regular 'explorer' file structure view (much better than Norton's long, unstructured list).
Tony
NORTON 360 - Does it backup all my data?
I have about 75 GBs of programs and data on my desktop. Like most people, I want to be able to recover these programs and data in case of crash, including the possibiity of needing to transfer all this to a new computer or hard disk drive(s). I have a separate external hard disk drive exclusively for this backup. On previous backup systems, I could see and recognize the files on my backup drive, and they took up the same amount of space as on my desk top - which I found to be most reassuring.
However, with Norton 360 backup, I do not know if all or any of my programs and data have been backed up. It appears unlikely since the N360_BACKUP folder created on my backup external drive is only 1.73GB!!! It consists of one sub-folder, 16 sub-folders, and two other files (backup.@db and DiscID.dat) that you have recently explained. The 16 subfolders have long lists of incomprehensible and unopenable numbered files, most of which are only 1KB and a few with a little more data (none over 22 Megs.)
Is it possible that 75 GBs have been compressed into 1.73GBs and are recoverable from the N360_BACKUP folder I described?
Re: NORTON 360 - Does it backup all my data?
Hello. For a complete backup I highly recommend Acronis True Image or a bit copy using Windows internal backup tool. The Norton 360 backups only certain files like documents, photos or videos in default settings.
Jan Polzer, Backup HowTo owner
Thanks for giving me the
Thanks for giving me the straight goods - particularly during the Christmas season.
Terry Liston