Mac OS X 10.4.2 (#11): Response from Symantec regarding Norton AntiVirus preventing FireWire drive unmounting; more

Response from Symantec regarding Norton AntiVirus preventing FireWire drive unmounting Yesterday we reported that in some cases, the "Auto-Protect" component of Norton AntiVirus (NAV) can prevent FireWire drives, and potentially other devices, from properly unmounting. The solution is to either use the "Disable Auto-Protect" option within Norton AntiVirus' preferences, or remove the utility entirely.

We've now received word from Symantec, the makers of Norton AntiVirus, indicating that the issue is under investigation, and offering some tips for dealing with the problem.

Symantec Product Manager Mike Romo told MacFixIt:

"Auto-Protect process may be getting in the way of unmounting drives. My QA team is looking at this, but from what I have found, all users need to do is try unmounting the drive again and, almost always, the drive will unmount. Uninstalling the application seems a bit severe, not to mention unsafe, given the workaround.

"Like I said, we are investigating this issue (we test with Firewire drives all the time, obviously) and will make changes if necessary."

Spotlight cannot find single asterisk filenames MacFixIt reader Scott Rose has discovered a problem where Spotlight cannot find files and folders containing a single asterisk (*).

Scott writes:

"We have a folder on an external FireWire drive that contains movies (and also contains subfolders with even more movies). Most of these are .mpg movies & .mov movies.

"We have denoted our favorite movies by ending their filenames with 1 asterisk, 2 asterisk, or 3 asterisks.

"For example:

• skateboard#20*.mpg
• skateboard#21*.mpg
• skateboard#22**.mpg
• skateboard#23***.mpg

"However, whenever we do a search for the asterisk symbol (by simply typing a * into the spotlight search field), Spotlight only finds the files that have more than one asterisk in their filename. Spotlight does not find any of the movie files that only have one asterisk in their filename."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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