DB- File Documentation
Summary
A .db- file is an internal database written by Norton NProtect, the “Norton Protected Recycle Bin” feature of the old Norton Utilities and Norton SystemWorks. It records details about deleted files so Norton’s UnErase tool could recover them later. It is behind-the-scenes bookkeeping with the MIME type application/octet-stream, not a file you open or edit. These files sit in a hidden NPROTECT folder and can usually be cleared by emptying the Norton Protected Recycle Bin.
Technical details
| Feature | Value |
|---|---|
| Full name | Norton Protected Recycle Bin (NProtect) database file |
| File extension | .db- (note the trailing hyphen) |
| MIME type | application/octet-stream |
| Format type | Proprietary, undocumented internal database |
| Developer | Symantec (Norton Utilities / Norton SystemWorks) |
| Era | 1990s–2000s; the feature is discontinued |
| Created by | Norton NProtect (Protected Recycle Bin / UnErase) |
| Typical location | C:\RECYCLER\NPROTECT\ or a similar hidden NPROTECT folder |
| Typical contents | Index/metadata pointing at recoverable deleted files |
| Magic number | None published — identify by folder location, not bytes |
| Open standard | No |
| Meant to be opened by users | No — internal to Norton software |
| Safe to delete | Usually yes, via the Norton Protected Recycle Bin (discards recovery data) |
| Common confusion | Sometimes a normal .db database with a stray trailing dash |
| Related extensions | .db, .dat |
What is a DB- file?
A .db- file is a working database created by Norton NProtect, the “Norton Protected Recycle Bin” feature that shipped inside Symantec’s Norton Utilities and Norton SystemWorks during the 1990s and 2000s. NProtect extended the standard Windows Recycle Bin: it tracked files as they were deleted so that Norton’s UnErase tool could restore them afterwards, including cases the ordinary Recycle Bin did not cover. The .db- files hold the index and reference data Norton used for that recovery. They are internal bookkeeping for the software, not documents a person is meant to open.
The trailing hyphen in the extension is deliberate and part of the name Norton wrote to disk; it is not a typo or a truncated .db. That said, one honest caveat applies: a file ending in .db- is occasionally just an ordinary database (a SQLite file, a Thumbs.db, and so on) that picked up a stray dash during a rename, copy or backup operation. The rest of this page covers the genuine Norton NProtect file and shows how to tell the two apart.
Where .db- files come from and where they live
NProtect stored its data in a hidden, protected folder rather than alongside user files. On FAT and older Windows systems this was classically C:\RECYCLER\NPROTECT\; newer layouts use an equivalent protected-recycle-bin directory. Most people never see these files during normal use. You typically meet a .db- only when you browse hidden system folders, when a disk-cleanup or antivirus scan lists it, or when you notice a large NPROTECT folder consuming disk space and go looking for the cause.
Because the format is undocumented and proprietary, there is no published magic number or field layout to quote, and this page will not invent one. The reliable way to identify a real Norton NProtect .db- is its location: if it sits inside an NPROTECT folder under the Recycle Bin, it is Norton’s. A .db- anywhere else is more likely a mis-renamed ordinary database.
What the file actually contains
The internal structure is not published, so its contents are best described by their purpose rather than by byte offsets. An NProtect .db- holds the reference and index records Norton used to locate and restore deleted files: pointers to the deleted data, plus the metadata UnErase needed to reconstruct each item. It is application-defined data with meaning only to the Norton software that wrote it. There is no user-facing schema, no export format, and nothing inside that a general database tool can interpret.
Why nothing on a modern PC needs it
The software that reads these files is end-of-life. Symantec wound down the classic Norton Utilities and SystemWorks line, and the NProtect Protected Recycle Bin feature is not part of modern Norton 360 products. On a current machine a stray .db- is almost always a leftover from an old installation, or something carried along when an old Windows profile was migrated or restored. No live program is waiting to use it. That also means there is no supported consumer way to open one: the only software that ever understood the format is discontinued.
How to tell a Norton file from a renamed database
If you need to know which kind of .db- you have, inspect the first bytes with a hex editor such as HxD. A genuine SQLite database begins with the ASCII text SQLite format 3 followed by a null byte, so seeing that header tells you the file is really a database that lost its extension; rename it to .db and a SQLite viewer will open it. If instead the header is unfamiliar binary and the file lives in an NPROTECT folder, treat it as Norton recovery data with no useful standalone reader. Checking the header is inspection only; it does not let you extract Norton’s recovery records outside the original suite.
References
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