Norton 360 and deleted files?

[BrerGnat]

We recently installed Norton 360 on both our computers (desktop and netbook). Since we've done this and run a few "system scans", we've noticed MANY of our files (sometimes entire folders) totally gone! Some programs are "blank" as well, where we used to open them and have files, the files are gone! One of these was DH's old Palm Desktop, which was obsolete for the most part, but did still contain lots of contact information as well as various other miscellaneous info he wished to keep. The Palm Desktop is now EMPTY and it's prompting us to "create a new user profile" when we open the program. In addition, our ENTIRE folder of pictures and videos is gone from the C drive.

Luckily, we have everything backed up on an external drive, but why did this happen? It's happened on both our computers, but our netbook has been practically wiped clean. Our desktop less so.

Anyone know how to recover the lost files? Or, prevent it from happening again?

My only guess is that some files were corrupted or infected, and they were removed as "risks".

Anyone? Getting NO help from Norton or online searches, although seems to be a rather common complaint with Norton 360..

[WDWfanatic742]

I've never had that happen before. Used 360 in the past until Comcast gave Norton Security Suite for free and been using that since then. Been using Norton for years and I've never seen something like that before...

[Ramblingman]

The best solution would be to get rid of any and all Norton products and stay away from them from now on.

There is a reason that people employed professionally in the computer fields at a certain big box store (think a squadron of nerdy types) will not recommend Norton or Mcafee products.

Norton is extremely invasive, and is simply not worth the money. True, it offers protection against viruses, but so do many other products, such as those by Spysweeper or Trend Micro.

The main problem with Norton and Mcafee revolves around compatibility. I cannot tell you how many people I have encountered who installed Norton and all of a sudden they could not access their online bank account, or could not log into some website where they had had a login for years.

I have had Norton and Mcafee given to me for free and I simply toss them in the trash. Not worth it.

For backing up pictures and other personal files - use an external hard drive. They are super cheap. Under $100 for 1TB of storage is plenty for most anyone. Back up all your music, pictures, documents, etc.

One more tip - if the pictures are important to you, such as a grandmother who is now dead or some other irreplaceable photo, make a second copy of the picture. Burn it to a CD or store it on a second HD. Keep the CD in a secure secondary location. Maybe a relative's house, or a safety deposit box. Anywhere but the same house where you store the first HD. That way you are covered even if your house burns down.

[DizneyRox]

The best solution would be to get rid of any and all Norton products and stay away from them from now on.

+1

I spend usually the first hour or so uninstalling all the bloatware people usually put on their machines. Then I instal stuff that just works, AVG or Avast, are great virus programs that are free, and Malwarebytes makes a great malware program that I highly recommend.

Using a freely available HOSTS file from MVPS.org will also go a long way to keeping you fairly safe. Nothing is fool proof (as soon as someone thinks that, along comes a better fool) but they help.

Another good practice is to stay away from those goofy emails that make the rounds, chain letters, cute ePostcards, those cool cursors or screensavers, etc.

[BrerGnat]

Well, the mystery has been solved. It was our 6 year old (computer nerd) son who deleted all the files. I actually caught him in the middle of doing it! He is a little too curious about computers, and he's incredibly smart, so he just began deleting everything on the desktop, then complete folders in our C drive...he doesn't like clutter.

Luckily, all the important stuff is backed up on two separate hard drives (DH does that about once a month, so we've got that covered).

A stern warning to NEVER delete anything without asking mom or dad first and a day of being grounded from the computer seemed to hammer the message home to DS.

Never leave a 6 year old genius alone on a computer, is the lesson I learned.

He did this on our netbook, where we didn't have a separate user account set up for Windows. We set up a user account for him immediately.

For what it's worth, I've used Norton products for years, and I've never had any issues with them. They do what they are supposed to do.

I've had MANY more problems using "freeware", even those recommended by supposed "experts". More often than not, those programs "bloat" my system, decrease performance, and really mess up my registry. I gave up on freeware a long time ago.

[Ramblingman]

I don't recommend freeware, as their libraries are too small to be effective.

However, I stand by my recommendation to everyone that unless you know what you are doing, stay away from Norton and Mcafee. Those who have used it and may be comfortable with them may prefer it, but if you've never used them, they can be a pain. They are to virus protection what AOL is to ISP's. They take control of your computer and make decisions for you. I've seen a lot more people have registry problems with those two than with freeware.