Fixing Norton Ghost

If you are running Symantec's Norton Ghost to backup a computer, you may occasionally run into the following helpful error:

"An interaction with the catalog's database layer failed unexpectedly: sqlite3_step--5: database is locked."

Surprisingly, the Norton online help is no use at all.  This problem, however is not difficult to fix.  As I have had this same issue with multiple versions of Ghost and also it seems to occur on multiple operating systems, the solution is probably not exclusive to my environment.  However, I am running Vista 64 bit and Norton Ghost 14.

To solve this problem it is necessary to stop the Norton backup service.  Press Control-Alt-Delete all at the same time and choose "Start Task Manager."

Click on the "Services" tab:

If you like, sort by name; you do not have to do that, but it makes it easy to see which services are running:

In my case the service is called "norton Ghost," but it may also be called "BESR," Backup Exec System Recovery."  It may be listed as either a Norton or a Symantec product.

Select it, right click, and choose "stop service."

It may deny you access;

We'll simply have to outsmart it.  Click on the services button in the lower right corner.  Windows may ask you for permission; grant it, and the following window should appear:

Select the service and click "stop the service" in the upper left:

Norton may complain that it cannot connect to the "agent."  Disregard the complaint.  Keep the services window open; you will need it again to restart the service. Got to "Computer," or "My Computer" or whatever your operating system calls it and navigate to the C drive.

Double click on Local Disk (C:) and then double click on "Program Data."

Double click on "Symantec."

Double click on "FileBackup"

Delete the file "catalog.dat

It might also be found in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data \ file backup

You may have to hunt around in similar locations depending on your OS and Ghost version.

Go back to the services window, choose Norton Ghost and select "Start the service."

Run Ghost.  It may take awhile to start as it has to rebuild the database.  You may need to redefine your backup jobs, but you probably do not.  Click on "status" and see what happens.  If you have to redefine the jobs, go ahead and do it, but I did not have to do so.