Norton Antivirus?

[sdsl]

I have just started using SuperDuper and I'm pretty impressed so far. My company requires Norton Antivirus software be installed on work computers (and home computers used to connect remotely to work computers), so I've done that. I used to like Norton software some years ago, but have grown a bit leery of it lately. I noticed a few minor issues after my SuperDuper backup that might or might be related to Norton Antivirus.

I am backup up a PowerBook G4 with 1 Gb RAM and about half of an 80-Gig internal drive free -- the target is an external Maxtor firewire drive with 80-Gig and 170-Gig partitions, with the 80-Gig partion being the target. Had been doing this for a long time previously with CCC.

(1) First minor issue -- SD was not able to unmount the external drive to erase it, I noticed that in the log, so I stopped the backup and erased the drive with Disk Utility, then reran SD without incident.

(2) Second minor issue -- after the backup was completed and I quit the SD program, there was a lot of disk activity on the Maxtor external drive and I saw from Activity Monitor that Norton Antivirus was very busy. I eventually restarted the computer and all was quiet again.

I am guessing that item (2) is related to Norton AntiVirus trying to catch up and check all the files that have flown by during the backup? Do you advise on turning off the automatic checking during backups for Norton or other antivirus software? This would not concern me as having Norton Antivirus on a Mac seems to only serve the purpose of intercepting PC-type viruses that might be passed on to a PC but are harmless to a Mac.

On item (1), could that be related to Norton Antivirus also [I realize you can't really diagnose this for sure, but thought this might be something that others have seen], or maybe related to the fact that there is another firewire drive on the same firewire chain?

Neither of these are real concerns but I'm trying to understand what I see. (By the way, does Norton Antivirus slow down SD at all? I would guess not if it is having to "catch up" after SD is all done.)

The things that impressed me most about SD are its speed, the progress indicators (very useful), the clarity of the messages and instructions provided to the user, and the apparent robustness of the software.

[dnanian]

Hi, sdsl.

Yes, Norton AntiVirus causes all sorts of problems with program that copy hundreds of thousands of files. The issues can include things like trying to unmount a drive, and also excessive scanning.

I'd suggest turning off AutoProtect, if you can. It'll improve your experience a lot...

[Timmy]

Hi,

I just started using NAV 10 on my system.

Instead of turning off auto-protect before performing a backup, would adding my backup volumes to the NAV auto-protect exclude list be a viable option to prevent problems during the backup?

MacOSX 10.3.9
NAV 10.1.1
SD 2.1.2

[dnanian]

You can certainly try, Timmy -- it should work.

[Timmy]

Originally Posted by dnanian

You can certainly try, Timmy -- it should work.

As much as I love guinea pigs, I don't wanna be one myself

Also, sometimes I do a full backup with erase/copy - even though SD keeps the name of the disk would that confuse the exclude list?

Basically, it sounds like manually disabling auto-protect is the preferred solution...

[dnanian]

Sorry, Timmy, I just don't know how Norton AV handles this stuff. It might be by drive name, it could be by GUID... you'd really have to ask Symantec what they do.

But, manually disabling will definitely do it.

[Timmy]

Originally Posted by dnanian

Sorry, Timmy, I just don't know how Norton AV handles this stuff. It might be by drive name, it could be by GUID... you'd really have to ask Symantec what they do.

It's not your fault that NAV 10 is the monster that it is, Dan

But, manually disabling will definitely do it.

I just finished a full backup with auto-protect disabled and it seemed to go normally.

My backup routine is becoming a bit cumbersome though.
-Log out of primary user account (since I am using filevault for that account)
-Log into alternate admin account
-Remember to disable NAV auto-protect
-Log out after backup is finished
-Log back into main user account
-Remember to re-enable auto-protect (sometimes it is in a nice enough mood to offer to turn it back on for me...)

[dnanian]

Yeah, I know -- FileVault makes things especially awkward. Note that if you're backing up a few files, NAV might not cause problems. But it can, because it can determine that perfectly good files are "infected" in some situations, because they match their signatures, and then those files won't copy.

On top of that, it interferes with copying by simply slowing things down incredibly.

So, YMMV. With a Smart Update, you might be able to get away with leaving NAV on. But, if you have trouble, give turning it off a try.

It'll also try to scan the whole FileVault volume, which will definitely be slow-slow-slow.

[Timmy]

Dave, I just noticed that I referred to as Dan in my previous post!

Sorry about that...

Thanks for explaining everything, and have a great weekend!

-Timmy

[dnanian]

I get that a lot, Timmy... I have no idea why!

[Timmy]

Originally Posted by dnanian

I get that a lot, Timmy... I have no idea why!

I think it's because of the proximity of the "d" to the "a"'s and "n"'s in your username.

When I glance up at the past threads, my brain sees 'dan" in there...

[dnanian]

Ah -- yes, of course. It's the short name "dnanian", rather than the signature. Makes sense.