Norton Ghost 14.0 [Old Version]

I bought this software thinking it would have more capabilities and functions. Had I not gotten a good deal on it, it would not have been worth purchasing.

Despite the friendly face on the cover, this is far from user-friendly software. It seems simple enough, and, when you begin to use it, looks like it should be a breeze. Once you get going, however, be prepared with your telephone and some ibuprofen. When I tried to use it to backup my PC running Windows XP, I ran into so many problems that I spent over an hour on the phone with customer support. After jumping through a few dozen hurdles and reconfiguring a few dozen files, finally we had success. Overall, there are so many easier and more reliable programs out there that I simply cannot recommend Norton Ghost 14.0.

Ive used both Ghost 12 and 14 for years. For making a backup to an internal partition and restoring it to the original or new drive partition, Ive been quite pleased. Just be aware that to restore your system partition onto a new drive you first have to create and format the partition using the Windows install disk. It is okay if the target partition is bigger than the original, that is usually the point of a new drive. Non-system partitions can be formatted using the Windows Disk Management utility in the Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management section. I have not tried to use Ghost 14 with a networked drive nor have I tried the Copy my hard Drive function that other reviewers complained about. The user interface is not as intuitive as older versions. The Home screen does not include the One Time Backup method that I prefer. I found it under the Tasks icon instead. All the funtionality of previous versions is there if you look for it, but it really pushes the scheduled backups that I prefer to do manually. Once I had it installed, upgraded and working I disabled Live Update. Symantecs Live Update corrupted my copy of Ghost 10 right around the time my license expired. If it works, leave it alone and it will continue to work for years.

This program is a MUST have if you are serious about protecting the data on your system! It will save you from worry that will take years off your life when your system eventually crashes and you are in peril of loosing all of your vital information. This Norton Backup utility is the Dean of software in this class. What else could you expect from the Norton people ? This robust backup package features a full system backup that backs up EVERYTHING on your hard drive or partition, A file and folder backup where you can selectively choose files and/or folders that you want to protect instead of doing the whole drive. Comprehensive system protection will let you do a recovery even when you cannot boot your OS. This package will point to FTP sites and will allow you to restore your system anywhere! Now this version has a Google Desktop integration using search able backup indexes that make the recovery super fast. This Norton 14.0 will back up other Norton Ghost installations version 12.0 or higher. Norton uses its exclusive ThreatCON integration where it will automatically back up your latest files when the ThreatCon meets or exceeds a specified level that you set. Norton claims that this feature is good for people who have PCs without antiviral protection. In the past, previous versions of Norton Ghost have appeared to have problems doing incremental backups but this version appears to have solved that problem. Installation is a breeze that will let even the most naive computer novice get the system up and running in moments. Finally, this is a great resource for protecting your system from those eventual crashes. Although people have complained about this product in the past, all that is needed to make the product perform as stated is to READ the instructions and FOLLOW those instructions as the company intended. Then it should work as advertised

As an IT professional I can make Norton Ghost perform the tasks I want it to do. I was able to backup my internal 100GB hard drive to my external 500GB drive without too much difficulty. I have never found a product that does a good job with backing up everything, including the OS, and restoring it good as new with little effort, so I wasnt too surprised to see that this product fails in that area too. Personally, I think people are better off using WinZip to backup critical data to an external medium than using something as hard to use as Norton Ghost. Just expect that when your HD dies, youll need to get a new one, format it, load the OS and your apps from source media, then restore your files from the WinZip backup files. This approach is FAR more reliable than supposed one-step solutions like this one.

I have enjoyed using Ghost 9, and for some stupid reason, decided to upgrade to 14. It installs a menu system that dumbs down and limits your options. Major problem using if you have an IDE, SCSI, or SATA drives, especially if you installed a Promise type card to get more drive slots. If you need support, all their 800 numbers go through (even during USA daytime) to India or Philippines for support, and they are all following scripted answers. If you try their CHAT they want to have you install software so they can remotely control your desktop in every case, and they still dont fix the problem, or know what is going on. The Gear Software drivers do not work in many cases. If you have other products that use drives/burners like Nero, AnyDVD, etc., you will have conflicts. The price at Nortons website is $70 and it will take more than 10 days if you select the most cost effective method of shipping box. I have wasted almost 5 hours in chat, endless on hold, ridulous telephone routing qeues, and there are no phone numbers to speak with anyone at Symantec in the USA. I will never use another Symantec product again for the rest of my life...and returned this Ghost 14

For the most part it does what its suppose to do. Excellent for maintianing a Back-Up. Particular problem encountered was; this Ghost works within Windows, with something running in the background that we could not identify and shut off, it would not make a good copy we could use when copying a worn out hard drive to a new one. It would copy but not run (tried three times). Solution; Had to find a copy of older Ghost 12 which works outside of windows, it made the copy, worked fine copying the primary disc to new hard drive, worked first time. We then reloaded Ghost 14 to use as a backup program for new Backup hard drive, works well. This may be particular problem for what we had running, but Ghost 12 had no problem.

good luck to you if you have windows 10. And worse yet, if your drive is already encrypted with Symantecs Endpoint Encryption (SEE). And even more luck to you if your drive is NTFS. I got Ghost specifically because it was said in a couple symantec pages that Ghost 7.5+ allows you to make a system disk of a SEE drive. And Ghost 11.5+ also lets you unencrypted the backup. Well, 3 hrs after installing, I still cant get the !#@$#^& thing to do a stinkin system backup to a USB drive. Why? Oh, now the documentation I get with this thing, states that it is capable of making a system backup to another drive, but not a Networked or Removable drive. So, I guess they didnt want to say in the Symantec web site that system backups are only for pc with multiple internal drives?!? Dang, they could have said that in their stinkin web pages *before* I bought this stupid thing...

I spent 4 hours trying to figure out why I couldnt create a Vista recovery point. I called tech support, and after 2 hours on the support line I was told I couldnt back up an NTFS laptop drive to an external FAT-32 drive. Thats nonsense, since Ive done this before. They asked if Id permit them to reformat my external drive (which had other things on it that I didnt want to lose). I said no. Then Nortons case manager called me back to ask if everything had been fixed, and if not to call a certain number. I called that number, and spent another hour and a half. The first technician said Id first have to uninstall McAfee antivirus software (Symantec sells a competitor - good advice? I said no). Then they transferred me to someone they said who could support Norton 14.0 -- hey, I thought thats who I was speaking to. After a total of 90 minutes I hung up. During that interval I uninstalled, re-installed, rebooted a couple times, loaded updates, rebooted again... and now the software appears to be working. But who knows. And if you ever need tech support, forgetaboutit.

Vista Home Basic and Home Premium users were unfortunately ripped off when the product didnt come with a standard backup feature built into the operating system. Thus, solutions like the legendary Norton Ghost. - First good news is it installed within minutes on Vista x32 and x64 - Second good news is backing up to my external Maxtor One Touch was flawless. It backed up nearly 200GB in a little over an hour. - Third piece of good news is when making the Symantec Recovery Disc, you can tell it exactly where to find your driver files and load those onto the disc. But. . . - First bad news is the UI stinks to high heaven. Trying to go the simplified look with high feature rich innovation like of Apple didnt work here. Symantec failed miserably. I had to search online or in the Help more than once to figure out how to use many of the features. - Second bad news, is its failure to restore, which is an essential feature in a backup & restore solution. So many bad reviews on Amazon, but so few of the reviews anyone actually trying to do a OS restore. So you backup your pictures and docs to a USB drive, big deal. A manual copy & paste does that. But restoring a crashed OS is a key feature that should be tested. Suffice it to say, the restore process failed for me like it did for the few others who posted reviews where this was attempted - Third bad news is the online support for actual error messages stinks. If you get lucky and find an obscure message board with a fix, then count your blessings because the online knowledgebase from Symantec needs help for the Ghost v14 product. Im a support manager by trade and every business report will tell you the #1 deflector of calls in to Support is to get online resources. . .Guess Symantec isnt partaking in standard business practices OVERALL: If you need something that will backup your data automatically, this works. But for the price you might try searching Sourceforge first to find a free solution. The worst part, every review that tried to do an OS restore, including myself, was unsuccessful. A key reason NOT to get this product.