Norton Ghost 14.0 [Old Version]

I used this to ghost my os and it worked very well. It was a bit confusing in the beginning but worked out in the end.

Here is our review on the Norton Ghost 14. As I reap the benefits of not losing data and having a back-up system in place, but have no technical experience, Im calling on my techie husband (hes a professional IT guy) to give you the technical run-down from a pros view: Want the ability to preserve those treasured photos or the video of the babys first steps? Need to recover the computer from a specific time and day when it was working correctly? Then youll want to checkout Symantecs Norton Ghost 14. Norton installed without any problem. I set it to back up the entire Photo directory (30gb) which it completed without any problems. The user interface is clean and easy to manage backups by date and time. The scheduling feature is great for those unattended weekly backups. Ghosting the entire drive to another drive (160 gb to a 500 gb in about 1 hr, both SATA), the process completed, but the O/S kept trying to register itself with Microsoft as if it were installed for the first time (yes, even after the original primary drive was removed from the system). I didnt have this problem with the stand alone version of Ghost 2003 (requires boot disk). Recovery point(s) work like file folders, each backup becomes a recovery point with all the data from the backup stored in the folder. This is handy if changes were made to the system between backup and something went wrong. Just go to the last working restore point and you are back in business. This suite of backup and restore tools are great to have on hand for any system as they are easy to use, easy to install, and provide a easy to follow approach to managing system maintenance.

I wonder who really needs this product. It is way too complicated to install. Restoration is not flawless by any means, i.e. you cannot count on it working when you really need it working. So, for backup of user files I will just use a simple script with xcopy, and for system restoration go through the complete reinstall: it will guarantee that everything is fine the way it should be.

] Norton Ghost is supposed to be a top-of the line backup program. I got it from Amazon for a steep discount. It requires matching the drivers on your computer to the drivers contained on the software CD. IF your drivers dont match or if your CD/DVD drive does not use GEAR technology, you cant perform the function I bought the software for -- creating your own system recovery disk to recover your system in the event of failure. This version is supposed to have both 32- and 64-bit drivers on its disk. it apparently had some 64-bit drivers, because I passed its driver validation test with the exception of my WAN miniport driver. My system is 64-bit. The program told me that I couldnt create a system recovery disk because my drivers didnt match the drivers on the Norton Ghost disk (32-bit drivers). It wanted me to add my own 64-bit drivers from my own system to its disk. I couldnt find all of my own drivers. If I did, how am I going to know Ive found them all and none were left? Oh, also if you dont have an external hard drive to save backups on, Norton Ghost 14 thinks youre screwed. Also, my CD burner stopped functioning while NG 14 was installed... Tried to send Symantec feedback using their feedback feature in the software and they timed out my connection before I finished. I gave up and uninstalled NG 14.0.

Error after error. Its bloated with too much junk and doesnt do the main thing - the imaging - near as well as many of its lesser known competitors. Nortons latest GHOST product cant hold a candle to simpler solutions from smaller companies like StorageCraft with their ShadowProtect program, Acronis with their True Image application or Paragons imaging solution, Drive Backup. Save your money and get a much better program for imaging your hard drive for a LOT less money from one of the products mentioned above - all of which are far superior.

with the Norton Ghost,scheduled to backup weekly to my external hard drive, I dont have to worry about computer crashes and losing all my data and photos.

I must admit, Norton is getting better. I agree with most of the other comments below - this version of Ghost is better than previous versions, with much more efficient backup & friendlier user interface. But while it might do a quick, decent backup, it is not reliable in restoring your system. I simply cannot recommend any Norton/Symantec products. And for the life of me, I cannot understand how they have held onto a reputation of being the PC security/backup/recovery company. There are many, many better products out there that are free. Just to name a few security/recovery programs (that every PC user should use): ZoneAlarm or Comodo, AVG, a2, spybot search & destroy, AdAware, and every PC user should download and install the HOSTS files from MVPS-org. For backup, use a combination of these programs, and look on life hacker, boing boing, zdnet, and other forums for a backup/recovery system that works best for you. Do NOT rely on the Vista backup system, either. Or, buy a 1-touch external hard drive. Or perhaps my best advice would be, move to a Mac, or get Linux (I am especially enjoying the new Ubuntu version on my Asus Eee). But I strongly suggest avoiding the temptation to get ANY McAffee or Norton products. None of them work well.

All I can say is it plain didnt work. All I wanted to do was a simple system backup to a new hard drive and replace the old one with the new one. The system would not boot with thew new drive. Tried the same process with a free download of a different software and it worked with no problems at all. Norton/Symantec is allowing feature creep to destroy their products. Hey Norton!... users want products that are simple and effective.

I use Norton Ghost 11 to backup/restore XP partitions, its fast and works great. Boot from CD, choose partition to backup/restore, choose destination partition/file, and you are done. It even compresses the data when doing backup to image file. I tried to boot from the Norton Ghost 14 CD and it gave an I/O error and stopped. Im going back to v11, Ive never had any problems with it.

System Requirements: Norton Ghost works with computers that have Vista or XP. You must have a 300 MHz or higher processor; 512MB of RAM; 400MB of available hard disk space; Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher; and a CD-ROM or DVD ROM Drive. Installation: Norton Ghost is very easy to install. If you want, you can choose custom install, which has the following options: 1) User Interface 2) Backup Recovery Service 3) CD/DVD Support 4) Recovery Point Browser 5) Live Update 6) Change Using it: It is very easy to use Norton Ghost. You have several options for backing up the computer. You can do a one time backup or you can set it to do backups at set times. Each time I turn on the computer, Norton Ghost asks me if I want to back up my computer. If I decide to do it, it backs up very quietly, with no interruption to what Im working on. Once the back up is done, a check mark shows up on the Norton icon at the bottom of the computer screen to show its done. If I decide not to back it up, thats not a problem. You also have options as to where you want to back up your computer to. I use an external hard drive, but you can back up files to a CD or a web site. Recovery: I created a custom Symantec Recovery Disk (SRD) and tested it and it worked fine. Bottom Line: Norton Ghost is easy to use and install, although it takes a fair amount of memory and space. Having lost an entire hard drive on my last computer, which I was unable to recover, I will be using Norton Ghost for back up quite frequently.