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No "Empty Norton Protected Files"

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Debbie Goldstein

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Sep 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/22/98
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Configuration Information:
Version: NU95 version 3.x
Operating system: --Other--

I'm using Windows 95c and Norton Utilities 3, with the latest update.
I did a custom install after having to wipe the hard drive and start
over because NU was causing major problems. I left out some things I
no longer need, like the demos and the Norton Integrator, but did
include the Norton Protection.

I have the Norton Protected Recycle bin, and it does collect files,
but when I right-click the icon, I'm only offered Norton Unerase and
Empty Recycle Bin. To empty the Norton Protected recycle bin I have
to switch to that folder (I use Norton Navigator's File Manager),
select the files and delete them without sending them to the recycle
bin.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 22, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/22/98
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On 22 Sep 1998 17:46:34 GMT, Debbie Goldstein wrote:

>I have the Norton Protected Recycle bin, and it does collect files,
>but when I right-click the icon, I'm only offered Norton Unerase and
>Empty Recycle Bin. To empty the Norton Protected recycle bin I have
>to switch to that folder (I use Norton Navigator's File Manager),
>select the files and delete them without sending them to the recycle
>bin.

Debbie,

Try the following:

1> Restart your computer in MS DOS mode by going to START>SHUTDOWN and
choosing RESTART IN MS DOS MODE.
2> When you get a DOS prompt, type CD\ and press the [ENTER] key.
3> Next, type DELTREE RECYCLED and press the [ENTER] key.
4> Answer YES to the prompt.
5> Restart your computer by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.

This will reset your recycled bin.

Russell Johnson [Symantec Corp.]

Please continue to post your messages to the public discussion groups
as Symantec does not provide support via private email.

If you have difficulty getting a response, please read the following article:

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/1998527114414

For free technical support newsletters, Knowledge Base support articles,
our Online Support Genie, and FAQs, visit our Norton Utilities support page:

http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/nu.html

Debbie Goldstein

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Sep 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/23/98
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On Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:07:45 GMT, Russell Johnson [Symantec] wrote:
> Debbie,
>
> Try the following:
>
> 1> Restart your computer in MS DOS mode by going to START>SHUTDOWN and
> choosing RESTART IN MS DOS MODE.
> 2> When you get a DOS prompt, type CD\ and press the [ENTER] key.
> 3> Next, type DELTREE RECYCLED and press the [ENTER] key.
> 4> Answer YES to the prompt.
> 5> Restart your computer by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.
>
> This will reset your recycled bin.

Sorry, but it didn't work. I deleted the trees on both hard drives,
and when I'd restarted, things were exactly the same: no way to empty
the Norton Protected Files. For what it's worth, I don't remember the
nprotect.log files being 646,528K long before I did this reinstall of
NU. I thought they were about 16K when the Norton recycle bin was
empty.

What's next? Am I going to have to uninstall and reinstall NU? Was it
possibly the custom installation I did?

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 23, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/23/98
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On 23 Sep 1998 02:38:20 GMT, Debbie Goldstein wrote:

>Sorry, but it didn't work. I deleted the trees on both hard drives,
>and when I'd restarted, things were exactly the same: no way to empty
>the Norton Protected Files. For what it's worth, I don't remember the
>nprotect.log files being 646,528K long before I did this reinstall of
>NU. I thought they were about 16K when the Norton recycle bin was
>empty.

Debbie,

Do you still have the same NPROTECT.LOG after doing the deletion?

If you do, then it sounds like you attempted to delete it while
Windows was still running instead of rebooting to MSDOS mode.

Rebooting to MSDOS mode and deleting the RECYCLED directories will
remove the NPROTECT.LOG file. A new, empty one will be created when
you restart your computer with Windows.

Let us know if there are any other questions we can help with.

Debbie Goldstein

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Sep 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/24/98
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On Wed, 23 Sep 1998 16:20:45 GMT, Russell Johnson [Symantec] wrote:
> On 23 Sep 1998 02:38:20 GMT, Debbie Goldstein wrote:
>
> >Sorry, but it didn't work. I deleted the trees on both hard drives,
> >and when I'd restarted, things were exactly the same: no way to empty
> >the Norton Protected Files. For what it's worth, I don't remember the
> >nprotect.log files being 646,528K long before I did this reinstall of
> >NU. I thought they were about 16K when the Norton recycle bin was
> >empty.
>
> Debbie,
>
> Do you still have the same NPROTECT.LOG after doing the deletion?
>
> If you do, then it sounds like you attempted to delete it while
> Windows was still running instead of rebooting to MSDOS mode.

I _did_ do the deltree in MSDOS mode. It took forever, because I had
over 900 files in the Norton Protected bin on C:. After I did the
Ctrl-Alt-Del to reboot, the recycle and Norton Protected recycle bins
were there, as I assume they are supposed to be. All 4, (C: and D:)
were empty--but the nprotect.logs were back, still at that 646,528K
size. Something fishy must be going on that resurrected the Norton
Protected recycle just the way it was before I did the deltree.

Now what?

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 24, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/24/98
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On 24 Sep 1998 04:57:20 GMT, Debbie Goldstein wrote:

>All 4, (C: and D:)
>were empty--but the nprotect.logs were back, still at that 646,528K
>size. Something fishy must be going on that resurrected the Norton
>Protected recycle just the way it was before I did the deltree.

Debbie,

Do this again:

1> Restart your computer in MS DOS mode by going to START>SHUTDOWN and
choosing RESTART IN MS DOS MODE.
2> When you get a DOS prompt, type CD\ and press the [ENTER] key.
3> Next, type DELTREE RECYCLED and press the [ENTER] key.
4> Answer YES to the prompt.

However, before doing step five, verify that the directory is empty
with the following commands:

1> Type CD\RECYCLED and press [ENTER]
2> Type DIR /A and press [ENTER]

Nothing should be listed except the . and .. directories.

5> Restart your computer by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.

Let me know how that goes.

Ron Taylor

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Sep 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/25/98
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On 24 Sep 1998 04:57:20 GMT, Debbie Goldstein wrote:

>All 4, (C: and D:)
>were empty--but the nprotect.logs were back, still at that >646,528K
size. Something fishy must be going on that >resurrected the Norton
Protected recycle just the way it >was before I did the deltree.

I'm actually having the exact same problem; the nprotect.log
is 646,528 bytes (Debbie, is the above mention of 646,528 K a typo?
or is your file really 646 MB ???) on drive C:.

Following the procedure given here by Russell Johnson didn't
accomplish anything. I still have no "empty norton protected files"
option when I right-click on the recycle bin. This only occurs under
Windows 98; with Windows 95 (OSR2, or "B"), on the same computer, it
works fine. I downloaded the latest live update as well; it didn't
affect the problem.

Since I seriously doubt we installed the exact same custom
configuration, and since I always did custom configuration under Win
95B as well, I'm left with the assumption it must be something
specific to newer version of windows. (I originallt though it was Win
98, but Debbie said she's running Win95C).

-Ron

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/25/98
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On 25 Sep 1998 00:04:20 GMT, Ron Taylor wrote:

>Following the procedure given here by Russell Johnson didn't
>accomplish anything. I still have no "empty norton protected files"
>option when I right-click on the recycle bin. This only occurs under
>Windows 98; with Windows 95 (OSR2, or "B"), on the same computer, it
>works fine. I downloaded the latest live update as well; it didn't
>affect the problem.

Ron,

Did you boot to DOS, remove the RECYCLED directory from all hard
drives, and verify that the directory was gone with the DIR /A
command?

What was the result?

Let me know.

Ron Taylor

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Sep 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/25/98
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Configuration Information:
Version: --Other--
Operating system: --Other--

On Fri, 25 Sep 1998 15:52:52 GMT, Russell Johnson [Symantec] wrote:
> Ron,
>
> Did you boot to DOS, remove the RECYCLED directory from all hard
> drives, and verify that the directory was gone with the DIR /A
> command?
>
> What was the result?

Yes, I did. It didn't change anything. Upon rebooting back into
Windows 98, it recreated the C:\recycled directory. A dir /a (in a
dos box) of that directory revealed that it was completely empty.
Then, I deleted a file in the same DOS window, and did a "dir /a"
again in the C:\recycled directory. At this point there was an hidden
NPROTECT directory under recycled, so i did a directory of nprotect,
which included two files: one of which I assume was the deleted file
(it was the right size), another which was nprotect.log, which was
6????? bytes in size. Right clicking on the recycle bin, and then
clicking norton unerase, and selecting "find all recently deleted
files" did in fact bring up the one file that was deleted. Everything
else seems to work fine. I was even able to empty the protected files
with a button under the recycle bin properties sheet (I can't
remember what it was exactly), and it did empty it. It seems as
though there is just a problem with the context menu. Comparing the
appropriate keys with my installation of Windows 95B showed nothing
different between the two.

At the time I installed Norton Utilites, my windows 98 drive
consisted of just the full version of Windows 98, and Plus! for
windows 98.

Resetting the recycle bin by deleting it does not seem to work. Do
you have any other suggestions?

-Ron

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/25/98
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On 25 Sep 1998 17:04:16 GMT, Ron Taylor wrote:

>Everything
>else seems to work fine. I was even able to empty the protected files
>with a button under the recycle bin properties sheet (I can't
>remember what it was exactly), and it did empty it. It seems as
>though there is just a problem with the context menu.

Ron,

Uninstall Norton Utilities using the steps outlined in the following
Knowledge Base document starting at "Uninstallation procedure":
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/1998512153520

Once that's done, clean boot as described in one of these Knowledge
Base documents:

For Windows 95:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/19961217121613

For Windows 98:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/1998429102510

While in a cleanly booted state, reinstall Norton Utilities.

You will get two prompts to reboot your system at the end of the
reinstall process. Answer no to the first one, and yes to the second
one.

Let me know how that goes.

Russell Johnson [Symantec Corp.]

Debbie Goldstein

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Sep 25, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/25/98
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On Thu, 24 Sep 1998 16:44:57 GMT, Russell Johnson [Symantec] wrote:

> Debbie,
<snip>

> 1> Type CD\RECYCLED and press [ENTER]
> 2> Type DIR /A and press [ENTER]
>
> Nothing should be listed except the . and .. directories.
>
> 5> Restart your computer by pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL.

Did that. Here's what happened when I rebooted:
In DOS, in a DOS window under Windows 95, and using Windows 95
Explorer, there aren't any Norton Protected recycle bins, as if they
didn't get resurrected. Norton Navigator File Manager, however,
_does_ show the Norton Protected recycle bins, and does show them
accumulating files.

My guess is that the right-click doesn't show Empty Norton Protected
Files (or whatever it's called) because Windows 95 doesn't believe
those folders are there. Is it safe for me to just remake those
folders, giving them the same names that Norton File Manager has
(Nprotect)? Or is that going to give NFM a nervous breakdown?

Ron Taylor

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Sep 28, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/28/98
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On Fri, 25 Sep 1998 17:24:29 GMT, Russell Johnson [Symantec] wrote:
> Ron,
>
> Uninstall Norton Utilities using the steps outlined in the following
> Knowledge Base document starting at "Uninstallation procedure":
> http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/1998512153520

This seemed to have made my system unstable... everytime I rebooted
it spewed errors at me.


> Once that's done, clean boot as described in one of these Knowledge
> Base documents:

> For Windows 98:
> http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/1998429102510

The VGA 640x480x16 option was greyed out on my computer.

Considering the problems I was having, and the fact that it was a
relatively new install of Windows 98, I just reformatted the hard
drive and reinstalled windows. *Immediately* after reformatting, I
reinstalled Norton Utilities--this seems to have fixed the problem. I
repeated this twice, and each time the recycle bin was fine. I can
only assume that something I changed the first time in between
installing 98 and installing norton utilities cause the problem.
Regardless, it's fixed now, and while my solution was somewhat of a
shotgun-and-fly approach, it DID work.

Of course, that doesn't fix the other problems I'm currently having
with 98; but one problem at a time.

Thanks for your help.

-Ron

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 28, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/28/98
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On 25 Sep 1998 23:22:36 GMT, Debbie Goldstein wrote:

>My guess is that the right-click doesn't show Empty Norton Protected
>Files (or whatever it's called) because Windows 95 doesn't believe
>those folders are there. Is it safe for me to just remake those
>folders, giving them the same names that Norton File Manager has
>(Nprotect)?

Debbie,

No. You can't remake the Recycle Bin on your desktop like that.

This indicates a problem in the registry. Uninstall Norton Utilities
from the START>SETTINGS>CONTROL PANEL>ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS control
panel. If your Recycle Bin does not appear on the desktop at that
point, or does not work in some fashion, contact Microsoft for help
fixing this.

Once the Recycle Bin is working correctly, you can reinstall Norton
Utilities and the Norton Protected Recycle Bin will work properly.

I recommend the following routine to install Norton Utilities:

Clean boot as described in one of these Knowledge Base documents:

For Windows 95:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/nunt.nsf/docid/19961217121613

While in a cleanly booted state, reinstall Norton Utilities.

You will get two prompts to reboot your system at the end of the
reinstall process. Answer no to the first one, and yes to the second
one.

Let us know if there are any other questions we can help with.

Russell Johnson [Symantec Corp.]

Russell Johnson [Symantec]

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Sep 28, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/28/98
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On 28 Sep 1998 13:49:33 GMT, Ron Taylor wrote:

>it's fixed now, and while my solution was somewhat of a
>shotgun-and-fly approach, it DID work.

Ron,

Sometimes, that's the only way to fix it. Thanks for the feedback and
I'm glad it's working for you now.

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