Norton Sucks, But What Else is There???

I have been a diehard fan of Norton Utilities for many many years... that is, up until Norton 2005, then everything changed.

Speed Disk, the Norton Disk Defragmenter and Optimizer, used to do a first rate job of it, I could truly optimize the drive; I could sort the files and folders, I could move the directory listings to the front of the drive, and when I was done, my drive was in prefect order, fully optimized, and the unused space was one solid block of uninterupted space.

Now, even after three or four consecutive alleged 'optimizations' (each taking 2 to 3 hours) my drive is still a mess. Directories/folders and files are scattered through my free space. Most of the features I though were most important are gone. When Norton Speed Disk starts, it no longer does drive map scan, so I can't see a visual representation of the drive before I start the optimizing process.

In short, it does a generally crappy job. To show you what a great job Speed Disk does, at the END of my previous Defrag, my C: Drive was 7.9% fragmented. Then I ran three consecutive Defrag/Optimizations and it is now 11.9% fragmented, and my drive partition looked more like Swiss Cheeze than an optimized drive.

I ran Norton Disk Doctor today and it found some problems, but didn't fix them. It claimed I had to reboot to initiated the repairs. When I did reboot, all Norton did was run MS Scandisk. I paid all that money for Norton Utilities, so that those utilities could run a free MS program???? That doesn't make sense.

Further, with past versions of Norton, I could run critical utilities like Disk Doctor and Speed Disk in Safe Mode, or if worst came to worst, DOS mode, but they no longer seem to run in Safe Mode and DOS is just a memory. What's a guy to do?

I am currently using Norton System Works 2006 V9 Build 103. And for the most part it is worthless, or at least the features I most depended on are now worthless.

So what's the problem? Has Norton adopted a new design philosophy? Is it a problem with Win-XP?

Can anyone recommend a set of System Utilities that can actually do the Job?

For reference-

I installed Win-XP over Win-98 but left the drives in FAT32 format. My computer is generally stable and serves my needs very nicely. Norton was installed after the Win-XP upgrade.

ABIT KT7/Athlon Thunderbird 900/512Mb DRAM
Maxtor 60Gb (partitioned 8/15.6/15.6/15.6)
Saphire ATI Radeon 7000 video
19" Viewsonic GS790 CRT Monitor

So, two basic questions-

1.)What the he|| happened to Norton?

2.) What is the best alternative to Norton for System Utilities? Especially, a top quality Defrag Program.

I'm open to suggestions.

Steve/boyblue

Well for a defragmenter, I'd suggest O&O Defrag. I like it a lot more than Speed disk. Depending on which defrag option you choose, it is usually a lot faster and uses a lot less resources. There's even a stealth mode so that it works while you're using the computer with no noticable slow-down. As for I can't remember how much it cost (I think it was under $50), but it didn't burn a hole in my pocket.

I have been using Raxco's PerfectDisk defrag software and I recommend it highly.

http://www.raxco.com/

If you do a search here at VDR on Greg Hayes or PerfectDisk, you will find some excellent information, which compares the features of all of the various defrag vendor software.

PerfectDisk is the only defrag software, which is certified by Microsoft. Another benefit of PerfectDisk is that it runs much faster plus many, many more benefits.

Cheers,

Linda

O & O, PerfectDisk and Diskeeper are all very good, I've tried them all, and personally there is little to choose between them IMO. Perfect Disk is the one that I chose in the end though.

Norton/Symantec is a comany that has seriously lost its way in my view. Every year their products become more bloated and buggier than the year before it seems. The best thing that you can do is never to have anything Norton anywhere near your PC :rolleyes:

Because Symantec has no development standards and their software generate so many problems, I do not allow any Symantec product on any of my computers. When Symantec bought PowerQuest, I switched to Acronis True Image backup software.

Symantec does not seem to be capable of writing an uninstall program will uninstalls all of the elements that were installed on your computer.

As a result of the screwed up Symantec management and software products, I recommend that my clients, associates and friends follow a similar strategy to mine.

Cheers,

Linda

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Originally Posted by boyblue

So, two basic questions-

1.)What the he|| happened to Norton?

2.) What is the best alternative to Norton for System Utilities? Especially, a top quality Defrag Program.

I'm open to suggestions.

Steve/boyblue

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In short , Peter Norton sold it to Symantec and when they took over it , It became symantec >> anti-garbage

2 great anti-virus programs I would recommend is either NOD32 or kaspersky

http://www.kaspersky.com/

http://www.eset.com/

and I believe your other question was answer

....

Thank for the suggestions -

Raxco Perfectdisk sounds good. Though $40 when Norton System Works only cost $70 seems steep. But of course, Norton is worthless at any price if it doesn't do the job.

Does anyone know anything about the trial versions at Raxco?

Do they work fully for a limited time period, or are they crippled versions?

The four aspects of Norton that I use most are -

-Anti-Virus ... it may not be great but I'm satisfied.

-Speed Disk ... doesn't even remotely come close to optimizing the drive. I may defragement files but that is only about half the job. I need something that will structure and organize my drive so it is as close to optimized as possible.

-Disk Doctor ... used to be great for keeping minor errors off my hard drive, but it's kind of pointless if all it is going to do is run MS Check Disk to make a repair.

-Win Doctor ... reasonably good for keeping my registry clean of unregisted and unassociated entries.

The latest version of Norton System Works comes with Check-It diagnostic, but as far as I can tell, all it is is an information program, it can't actually repair anything.

So, I'm also looking for replacements for Disk Doctor and Win Doctor. Does anyone know of any reliable and effective programs for cleaning crap out of the Registry and for keeping errors off my hard drive?

What are everyone's thoughts on System Mechanic? Despite great reviews on-line, I tried an older version on my computer and it took me a week to get it working properly again. I think this was Version 3, they are now up to something like version 7.

System Mechanic by IOLO
http://www.iolo.com/sm/ads/landing/i...5-F880DD92137D

Then there is V-Com Fix-It Utilties and System Suite. I know for the very first versions that came out, they tended to be mostly an interface to the Microsoft utilities, but they have grown substantially since then.

I've got V-Com - Power Desk which is an absolute first rate replacement for Windows File Explorer. I couldn't live without it.

V-Com Fix-it and System Suite -
http://www.v-com.com/product/index.html

One last thing, although not directly related to the question at hand, I need some decent back-up software. I don't want to do full drive back-up, I just want to keep back-up copies of specific directories; email, business documents, etc. I've got a 40Gb USB Hard Drive and a 60Gb main hard drive neither is even remotely close to full. So backiing the main drive to the USB drive is relatively fast. I do it now by copying the full folders, but it would be faster if it would just update the files, replacing old versions with new, and leaving unchanged files alone.

Suggestions?

Thank for all the help.

Steve/boyblue

The trial version of Perfect Disk is time-limited, but fully functional.

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-Anti-Virus ... it may not be great but I'm satisfied.

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Norton Antivirus is rubbish. You only have to look in our own Hijack This logfiles forum to see how many systems that are infested with malware have NAV installed :eek: I've been using Zone Alarm Security Suite for a while now, and it's pretty outstanding - the best I've ever used.

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-Speed Disk ... doesn't even remotely come close to optimizing the drive. I may defragement files but that is only about half the job. I need something that will structure and organize my drive so it is as close to optimized as possible.

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PerfectDisk is probably the best for optimisation, if you use the "Smart Placement" option.

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-Disk Doctor ... used to be great for keeping minor errors off my hard drive, but it's kind of pointless if all it is going to do is run MS Check Disk to make a repair.

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As you say, pointless. It cannot do anything that Windows own built-in tools can't do.

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-Win Doctor ... reasonably good for keeping my registry clean of unregisted and unassociated entries.

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Unneccessary in WinXP, all you gain is a tiny amount of hard drive space, at the risk of hosing the system. XP handles the Registry far more sensibly than 9x, and redundant entries do no harm at all.

While SystemWorks undoubtedly had its uses in 9x/ME, there isn't really any need for those tools in 2K/XP. I've been using Win2000 for 6 years, and XP for 5, and I've yet to find a single maintenance job that I couldn't do with Windows built-in tools or one of the excellent freeware utilities that are around. $ware tools are a waste of money IMO.

Hi boyblue,
I've been using System Suite for years. (I've upgraded through 4 or 5 versions.) Its defrag is fast, Disk Fixer (like scandisk) and Reg Fixer good, support is good, AV is Trend Micro I believe. Lots of tech toys; I like the features for backing up, archiving or moving progs to another machine. AND it's never screwed up my machine!
http://www.v-com.com/product/SystemSuite_Home.html
Chas

Since Switching to these quite a while back, I've NOT Had a prob---
"Mcaffee Security Centre"--"Perfect Disk 7.0"---"Advanced Uninstaller Pro 2004"----"XsoftSpy"...plus I use the others...SpywareBlaster, Hijack-This n Good Old Evidence Eliminator to get rid of things I don't want anyone to see or to clutter up my PC...OH YE! the good old Arguement we always seem to have..You DO! I DON'T!!-----I Never Update Windows past it's Normall first part of SP2..As long as my Windows recognises Large Hard Discs & Large Ram & USB 2.0...That's It..The Rest is RUBBISH n Bloat......JMHO of doing Both on 2 PCs....Don't Go where you not supposed to go!!