Norton GoBack4.0

I recently installed Norton system works 4.0 on my computer which came bundled with a version of GoBack4.0. I didn't see any harm in installing it so I let it do so. After it installed I noticed how sluggish my system appeared to be and I concluded it was the GoBack at work so I clicked on the GoBack icon and told it to disable. It said it needed to reboot to do so and I let it. It booted up and went to a GoBack uninstall screen and appeared to be uninstalling. After it finished a screen pops up with a message (155) from Norton stating it was uninstalled improperly and there might be errors on the disk. It also stated I should run scan disk asap. This is all fine and dandy except now when I boot up I can get to bios, but nothing else. It always goes immediatly to the GoBack screen which tells me the uninstall had possible errors click ok. I click ok and it says press spacebar for more options or wait for continuing of boot. If I press spacebar or not it just continues to go through this over and over in a loop. I've tried inserting my XP disk to get a boot up screen, i've copied an ISO of GoBack as instructed by a help chat from symantec, I've tried ever F key and only ended up saying a few F words. I've found many similar issues online but none help. Until I can see a C: I have no idea how to format or anything. Symantec should be ashamed for it seems I am only 1 of several that has lost a hard drive due to this program. Is there anyone that can help me save the hard drive or will I have to just toss it and buy a new one? It's a compaq presario 900 with XP sp2.

 

Hello curtains22 and welcome to the Board,

To access the C drive with the XP CD:

Your BIOS has to be changed to make the CD ROM the primary boot device. It may be set up that way now - insert the XP CD into the ROM, shut the system off completely, re start the system.

Once the system is set to boot from the CD:

I think GoBack damaged the Master Boot Record. You have three courses of action:

Try a repair of the MBR, read this thread on instructions to do that: http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?p=294384#post294384 RC

If that doesn't solve the boot problem, a repair of XP: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm XP Repair

And finally a complete re install of XP: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html XP clean install

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Curtains22…..Welcome to the forum.
If it comes to it I’m sure you can save the hard drive by just wiping all data on it and then partitioning, formatting and reinstalling Windows. An app like Killdisk will do something called a "˜Zero Fill’ that will write zeros to every sector of the drive and so remove all data "“ including file system errors.

The first thing you should try however is to check the drive for bad sectors. Boot to the Recovery Console from the XP CD and once at the C:\WINDOWS> prompt type chkdsk C: /r and hit enter and let it do its thing. If that does not cure things then see if you can now get to Safe Mode with Command Prompt (repeatedly press F8 as the computer starts to boot) If you can get to the Command Prompt then this time type chkdsk C: /f. Accept the option to check on reboot and Ctrl+Alt+Del to exit.

If you can’t get to the Command Prompt or a file system repair does not help then you can try the hard drive manufacture’s disk diagnostic utility to see if it has better luck. Find out the make of your hard drive and go to their web site and look for their diagnostic tools. Or post the make of the hard drive and someone will give you a link. Or get this CD which has most manufactures tools included.

 

Hi Charles, you got in there between me reading the post and replying! Don’t see the MBR being damaged if he’s getting a GoBack screen on boot. The Active Partition might have been changed if GoBack was working from a second partition, but more likely it has just changed the XP boot files to place itself first. I have no experience with GoBack so don’t know how it operates.

A Windows repair install is definitely the next action if chkdsk does not bring Windows back after repairing the disk error that was reported by GoBack.

 

Thanks still need help.

Thank you for your info. I still have a problem. I have tried to set the boot up priority to CD first but it still always goes to the goback screen even after I put the cd in the drive. Right now It seems I can't use my CD drive unless I'm still missing something. I dont' have access to the computer right now so I can't look up the hard drive info. I'll post it when I am at the computer again.

 

Hi McTavish,

I don't either. Have come across in my reading where one of GoBack's "tricks" is to damage the MBR if GoBack itself gets corrupted.

Missed the disk error reported by GoBack - sharp eyes But that may be a "canned" message - don't know.

Regards - Charles

 

Are you seeing a message on screen to "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD� You get only a few seconds to hit a key before it will move on to boot the hard drive.

Well Charles you’re correct about GoBack and the MBR. Unbelievably it not only alters the MBR but also the partition descriptors! Found a lot of posts from unhappy people who have had GoBack trash their systems.

Curtains22…..I think you need to follow Symantec’s own repair instructions for GoBack. With your partition descriptors changed the partitions are no longer of standard format and so any attempted repairs even with the XP recovery console might well make matters worse. Work your way through this http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...hot&prod=Norton+GoBack&ver=4.0&csm=no&seg=hho
If you’re unsure of anything post back.

If you get back into Windows ok then still run the chkdsk bad sector and file system checks and repairs. You can do it easier from Windows "“ right click on the C: drive (if C: is your XP Install) and choose Properties>Tools and click the Check Now… button for Error-checking. Put a tick in both boxes and click Start. You’ll be asked if you want to reboot to do the checks, click Yes and reboot the computer.

Once that’s done then probably advisable to replace the MBR from the Recovery Console with the fixmbr command.

Then if it was me I’d also use this:
http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPOR...=docid&dtype=&prod=&ver=&osv=&osv_lvl=&seg=hm

 

Thank you

Ok, I finally figured out why I couldn't boot up a cd. I had the boot priority set correctly but apprently there is a security setting that prevents a cd or floppy from booting. After finding this setting in the submenu's of the security on bios I was able to boot into the GoBack dos disk. After doing this I still had the same issue though. It took away the message about being uninstalled incorrectly but continued to loop through the GoBack splash screen on boot over and over never making it to windows. I also tried my windows XP disk and was able to get to the repair option but it wanted a password. I have never set up a password on this computer but apparently it has a generic one. I couldn't figure it out so I just stopped with that. At this point I know I can use the Windows Disk to reformat. I left it alone for now and just purchased a new 40Gb Seagate Notebook Drive that was faster RPM and larger Cache. I may play with the other disk just to see if I can get the info off of it. I feel like I should just ship it to Symantec and let them see what a mess this software is creating. Ohh well, any more suggestions feel free. Thanks for all the input.

 

Did you try that link to Symantec in my last post above? It tells you how to get past the GoBack screen and then disable it– or if that won’t work for you there is a little app to download.

If you don’t have an administrator password then just leave it blank and press Enter to get into the Recovery Console. But as I said above, you have to disable or remove GoBack the recommended Symantec way from the MBR before you do anything else so that the modified partition descriptors are changed back to what they are supposed to be. The XP MBR may not see the changed partitions as bootable.

 

If you immediately started using computer after fresh GoBack install, I would expect it to sluggish. It is backing up /writing multiply GB's of critical HD information. After install or disable/enable (zeros out GoBack files for full rebuild .. example potential virus sanitize) I generally wait 30 minutes plus or when HD activity stops before using the computer. This is a one time event. After GoBack has built the base files it is transparent to the system (including on my kids old 300 CPU clock). Have been using GoBack since 2.x's, currently running 3.2 on my 3rd and 4th computer. GoBack has never failed me on 4 computers. My most favorite feature of GoBack, it creates a "Safe Point" automatically every time I install a new program ... yes, this has saved my bacon so many times over the years. Like security, best provided in layers. For backups, GoBack is one of my layers ... hands down the one I use the most. I can not vouch for GoBack 4.0 (get nervous with Symantec steering the ship), but previous versions are rock solid.
You may want to try McTavish suggestion / URL for Symantec solutions. They seem to describe your problem, and could provide an easy solution.