Richard Parsons - Professional Profile

Ok, I must rant for just awhile to those who I know don't care much but will at least understand where I'm coming from. What ever you do in life don't by another norton product. Their virus scanner slows a system down so much it can't be used and now... Mad | :mad:

Norton Ghost 10 doesn't do anything.

<cheesy flash back music />
I bought a laptop finally. A nice Acer 5672 with 120gig HDD, 2gig of ram, a X1400 video, and a 1.66 centrio duo processor. It came with XP Home so of course I wiped that out and put XP Pro on it. Well After spending 2 days gathering software and installing everything I was ready to backup my computer that way if something ever happen to it I could put in my backup disk and I would be back up and running in minutes instead of days... I decided on Norton Ghost because back in the day when I was working as a tech we used it and it worked very very well. As a matter of fact I was one of 2 people that recycled 600 pc's in 70 locations in the U.S.A. We were given the old PCs as we shipped new shiny Dells to the locations and we used Ghost to speed up the process. Anyway I got Ghost and installed it today and first thing that happen I turned off the System Tray Icon and rebooted (just for because not because I had to) when it rebooted the tray icon was back Confused | :confused:

I turned it off again and rebooted. Same thing it kept coming back. I went onto the symantec help site and did the live chat where I came to the conclusion the man I was talking to knew nothing. I ended up teaching him how to remove the tray icon, which by the way takes a registry edit Sigh | :sigh:

. Ok all is good now right? Sure but I have no DVDs at work so I have to wait till I'm at home to actually make my backup.
<flashforward scene />
Now at home I start Ghost and tell it to make a full backup of my system. I did this by telling it to copy C: to my DVD drive (which the documentation says it can do). Everything was good in life and I was happy Ghost was copying data from HDD to DVD and even finished with 33% of the backup. At 33% disc one ejected and Ghost told me to “insert media 2”, ok. I got another DVD popped it in and…. Nothing…. Popped it out and Popped it back in and…. Nothing… Confused | :confused:

Hmm… So another trip back to symantecs help center… (this time I kept the transcript of the chat which I’ll be quoting from).
First thing up is:
In order to resolve your issue, you need to defragment the drive and Run the checkdisk.
To which I replied:
This is a fresh install of Windows XP Pro and I have already run those programs.
Attempt 2:
HIM: There might be a DVD compatibility problem <link to article />
Thanks for chatting can I go now? <paraphrased />
ME: No you can’t go, this is not the problem, My DVD-RAM is a Sony and the DVD-R's I'm using are Sonys. <said much nicer to him />
HIM: This is the compatibility issue between the Symantec products and your system configuration. So please go through that document.
ME: Mad | :mad:

at this point so.. Was the doc titled "DVD media compatibility with DVD-ROM drives"?
HIM: Yes
ME: That document suggest a problem between the DVD-Rom and DVD media you are using to write to.
HIM: Oh…What Operating system are you using?
<More pointless questions that got us nowhere />
HIM: Please , don't take the back up directly to the DVDs.
HIM: Try these 10 easy steps…
ME: Okay what are they
HIM: <listing steps />
HIM: Can I go now? <paraphrased />
ME: Nooo, this doesn’t work either, I got an error message following your easy steps…
HIM: Then, try with other destination. <NOT Paraphrased, his actual words Mad | :mad:

/>
ME: I only have one harddrive in the machine. That is why I want to backup straight to DVD like Norton Ghost says it will do
HIM: Try this document, It will tell you about the supported DVD drives by the Ghost 10.0.
ME: My drive is listed as a supported drive…

<more useless info that needs to be cut />

ME: Shanmugam I would like to get this software working but these "issues" are costing my business money. What steps do we need to take to get my money back.
HIM: What is your product key?
ME: <product key here />
HIM: Sorry Richard, I am not the authorized persion to provide refund. <NOT Paraphrased />
ME: Why did you need my product key then:
HIM: Here is a number to call to get your refund…
ME: Please hold while I call these people, I want you on the chat incase I need you for anything else.
HIM: Okay

<Me talking to yet another rude person />
She took my number then sent me to a Symantec search page and told me to type something in and tried to hang up on me… Mad | :mad:

yet again
I ask her to help me find the document and she did and when I got to the page she again tried to hang up on me and I ask her to wait while I made sure this was the form I needed and that I could really get my money back. She didn’t wait instead she started her good bye talk thanking me for calling so I aggressively said “HANG ON I’M DONE WITH YOU YET!” and she said Huh? I said wait just a minute while I read this, you could help me by telling me the following information … finally she finished helping me and I got her name and printed the form.

<present day and time – hince no cheesy flashback wavy lines />

I now just have to mail my CD and this form back to them and I will get my money back. My biggest complaint is that they are shipping this software with glaring bugs. If nothing else I knew I was in trouble when the check box to turn off the tray icon didn’t work.. What’s up with that??? Next their solution around a bug was to not do something (burn to DVDs) that their product was advertised as doing? How in the world do they stay in business with bad products and terrible support?

-Ok that’s my rant… I hope noone else has had this problem but I’m afraid I’m not the first…

-Richard

Must have been a ghastly experience, that one!

Regards,
Nish

Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
Currently working on C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications.

I had problems with Norton Internet Security. I had reinstalled my Computer. Now having a blank system I tried to install NIS. It had run on the computer with the same OS before. After installing a error message appeared telling me I had to reinstall the software. So I tried. The Setup said I had to remove the software first. So I opened the installed applications and clicked one remove. NIS told me then that only the Administrator can remove the software. Ok, well I WAS the Administrator. It was a totally new system, just one user (the Administrator - me). I was able to install it - ok it didn't run, but why shouldn't I be able to remove it? Then I wasn't able to do many things an adminstrator normally can do. NIS had taken all the rights. I was just a normal user now, not able to create new users.
Ok, well I had to format the harddrive again. I kicked NIS into the trash, never installing it again.

Ingo

------------------------------
PROST Roleplaying Game

War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.

I remember when, to me, the name Norton/Symantec meant "quality", now days, it means, "don't touch".

"Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug."
- John Lithgow

I am actually still using Norton (only because my mom bought it and now she uses something else so she gave it to me and I would feel bad letting 50 dallors go to waste (or is it going to more waste?)). I havn't had many or any problems with it on this fresh install of xp home (I like to reformat every 2 or 3 months). I know it does slow down the computer but I don't do any gamming or other very cpu intense things so it doesn't bother me too much and it has kept out some pretty nasty viruses I almost got. But once the subscription of norton runs out... bye bye it goes.

Oh ya and very nice article.

Thanks for the input.
Norton has been going downhill for some time now.

Still junk at Ghost 14.

Check out a similar problem:

http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=other&message.id=11491#M11491

There update program has crashed systems all the back from Norton SystemWorks. Remember that scourge?

Symantec makes Junk, garbage, useless tech support, difficult to navigate knowledge base (that often doesn't provide any use either! OK, I feel better.

Try Macium Reflect. Does the trick at a cheaper price.

is cool

If you're reading this leave me a note Smile | :)

Yes he is isn't he Wink | ;-)

David

So, I am working on a quick and dirty rtf editor, and realized that, while I was meeting the "dirty" requirement, the "quick" part was being sidelined by the need for a toolbar.

Richard is not only cool, but is also "the man" and I mean that not in an "oppressive, mean" sense, but in the "Sam Jackson's wallet" sense.

Thats some funny stuff right there, I don't care who ya are Smile | :)

I'm glad you liked the control.

Richard Parsons wrote:
is cool

Of course he is. Cool | :cool:

------------------------------
PROST Roleplaying Game

War doesn't determine who's right. War determines who's left.

Nah,

is hot!

Pull the tapeworm out of your ass
Fold with us! ¤ flickr

Richard Parsons - Professional Profile

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