Norton 2K3 problems

[A Person]

Just got Norton System Works and Norton Firewall 2K3. Installed System Works and it was running fine. Then I used it to scan my disk for errors. I got a BSOD saying that there was a registry error. I could no longer boot Windoze. Not even safe mode, command prompt, or the repair utilities on the CD. Just got the same "registry error." So I used the Western Digital utilities that came with the HDD and it said my disk was "code 207." The Western Digital site says code 207 means that my disk is ruined. I can't even write zeros to it.

Anyone else have a problem similar to this with Norton? Probably not, but worth a try.

BTW, Norton tech support says it is not there fault so they don't have to provide me with any assistance. Windoze tech support says they can't help me cuz it is a third-party issue. And since I got my HDD off of eBay WD won't replace it. :cry:

It was a WD special edition 120Gb (WD1200) - costed me 95 bucks, OEM

[deftno9]

wow, thats hardcore. never ever heard of nething as severe as that from running a disk check. How long have u had the drive for? The registry problem sounds unrelated as registry files are part of windows and u seem to have a bad disk. Have you run a disk check prior to Norton? as I think Norton just ran across a bad block of disk and blew up. Personally never had ne problems wit Norton and never had a disk go bad on me. Lucky I guess but I dont think Norton was the source of ur problems. I have heard however that WD's do sometimes go bad, not sure where I heard that from.

[EmoMakesMeCry]

hm, i'm not sure what to do about that, but i've had problems with norton antivirus 2k3...

im on a linksys router and so there's that firewall that always gets in the way if i try to host games...

well norton has this auto-update thing...well it doesnt work, i try to connect and it never does, this is what i always get...

"Initializing...
Connecting to Eastern US, Canada and others...
Downloading catalog file, not available.
Unable to connect to host
LiveUpdate could not retrieve the catalog file of available Symantec product and component updates. Please verify that you are able to connect to the Internet and run LiveUpdate again.
LiveUpdate session is complete."

so i have to go to the symantec site and download and install the new virus updates manually....it's not too much of a big deal, but it's still a pain in the butt and i'd rather norton automatically download the updates like it's supposed to...

i was thinking that i'd have to go into the forwarding options on the router and clear up some ports...but the problem is, i'm the 2nd direct wire computer connected to the router, and whenever i clear up a port, my mom's computer all of a sudden stops working, well the internet does at least, until i go back and undo that forwarding setting...

anybody got any clue what to do with this??

[A Person]

I only had the disk for a month and had only been using it for a couple of weeks. You're probably right. It porbably just came across a bad portion of the disk and went bezerk.

Well, I learned my lesson. I will never buy OEM again.

Thanks a lot for the help.

[MaNiAk21]

Yeah, that really sucks, I haven't had any problems since it was first released and was full of bugs. But they were fixed... WDs like to crap out on you from my experience/what I've heard, watch out. :( I wish I could help...

[Kurtis]

I only had the disk for a month and had only been using it for a couple of weeks. You're probably right. It porbably just came across a bad portion of the disk and went bezerk.

Well, I learned my lesson. I will never buy OEM again.

Thanks a lot for the help.

Your prob is buying from ebay, not OEM. I never buy from ebay. A lot of people sell stuff on there to get rid of it, not to be a good seller. I don't trust random people.

If you are going to buy any hardware that has a great impact on your system, buy from someone you trust. And make sure you have warranty, etc. blablabla. I dont think the problem was caused by Norton, just tripped upon by it. Perhaps it would have kept working without Norton just fine, but I seriously doubt that Norton caused your disk to go bad.

[A Person]

Thats a good idea. I wil never buy anything important off of ebay any more. But hey, maybe I'll do a mindow mod on it and have a really interesting discussion piece for my coffe table. :D

[MaNiAk21]

I WILL buy from ebay if they are ebay certified, PayPal certified, sell in bulk with warehouse connections or have a business. They also must have a warranty and return policy. :) But I will buy off ebay.

[Rich]

OEM drives that are still in the plastic should carry the same warranty. I have had a total of 3 WD fail on me in the last 2 years. One of which was catastophic, ie system would net even recognize a drive at all. I have switched over to maxtor now. I would also avoid IBM since they merged their HD service with Hitachi. They no longer will do advanced RMA's. :(

[deftno9]

yea im with MaNiAk21, ebays alittle sketchy when buying hardware especially something as sensitive as a HD but there are some quality sellers out there. Personally I'd go for retail unless there was a REALLY big discount that would ofset any possible irritation. Try looking for good deals next time, I got my 80gb WD drive w/ a $50 rebates, it was sweeeeeeeet...

[Kurtis]

Thats a good idea. I wil never buy anything important off of ebay any more. But hey, maybe I'll do a mindow mod on it and have a really interesting discussion piece for my coffe table. :D

there you go. you should do that. When else will you have a broken drive laying around begging to be modded? :)

ALso... not sure why everyone has probs with WD drives... I have one and its been going strong for around 4 years. I am a recent Seagate fan since i got my barracuda IV 80gb 7200rpm 2mb. it's been great so far :) and it was a great upgrade from my old WD 5200rpm :P

[A Person]

If I had money to burn I would have gotten a sata Barracuda V. I know the sata won't really increase my performance cuz my mobo has the sata controler on the pci bus. But they are still nice hdd's. Quiet too.

:idea: I should start my own web site to get free stuff... oops, I mean review stuff.

[A Person]

It seems like you guys don't like WD to much. Would you agree that I should stay away from them in the future? I was looking at the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9's. They seem to have good reviews but do cost a bit more.

What do you guys think?

[deftno9]

I'm a 100% happy with my WD. I've only read in support forums about the "bad drive" problem so the issue is prob magnified. WD is a great company w/ a really good warrenty and return policy. in the end if u decide on a WD make sure to get the 8mb cache version, its 1 of the fastest 7200rpm drives out there and the throughput is comparable to a scsi drive!! from what ive read.

[Rich]

I have had several WD drives. The ones thhat failed were replaced very quickly and the service was execellent. I have been going with maxtors right now personally. In term of service, stay away from IBM since they no longer advance RMA anything. :(

[A Person]

Yea!!!! I fixed it.

Since I couldn't do anything that required reading data off of the disk (for example, booting) I put the hdd in another puter and made it a slave. I booted that computer from the master hdd and then formatted the slave (ntfs). Removed it and put it back in it's original puter and instaled Windoze. Good as new. (well, probably not, but I can only hope) No more Norton for me. I'll stick with AVG anti-virus and Zone Alert firewall.

Thanks for all your help.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[deftno9]

wow great to see u fix the problem I wouldve been crazy pissed if I had to buy a new 1. in retrospect that was a really wierd problem u had there, couldnt boot to win, couldnt boot to dos and even WD tools told u it was gone. :? maybe it was aliens

[A Person]

Ya, that was probably the wierdest problem I've ever run in to.

[Lotusjewel]

Just got Norton System Works and Norton Firewall 2K3. Installed System Works and it was running fine. Then I used it to scan my disk for errors. I got a BSOD saying that there was a registry error. I could no longer boot Windoze. Not even safe mode, command prompt, or the repair utilities on the CD. Just got the same "registry error." So I used the Western Digital utilities that came with the HDD and it said my disk was "code 207." The Western Digital site says code 207 means that my disk is ruined. I can't even write zeros to it.


It's a rather strange coincidence that Norton would find a bad registry entry and then your hd would be unable to write any longer. Perhaps Norton was the culprit to initiating this, but I believe it to only be a catalyst to your hd malfunctioning.


Anyone else have a problem similar to this with Norton? Probably not, but worth a try.


Nope, sorry. Just performace issues heh.


BTW, Norton tech support says it is not there fault so they don't have to provide me with any assistance. Windoze tech support says they can't help me cuz it is a third-party issue. And since I got my HDD off of eBay WD won't replace it. :cry:

It was a WD special edition 120Gb (WD1200) - costed me 95 bucks, OEM

I didn't have much luck with WD either. I bought my first one from Fry's Electronics and it worked for about 2 weeks before it crashed. They replaced it and all was well. My other WD was a new 80gig with a generous mail-in rebate of $50. That lil bastard worked for 3 months as my secondary (backup). 63 gig of backup cd's later, wham bam thank-you-mam. You might say I've written them off now.