Norton Ghost 14

[b10h4z4rd]

In this review, I will show you some features and tools of Norton Ghost 14.

Norton Ghost 14 Home screens

After the install and initial configuration, whenever you start up Norton Ghost 14, you will see a screen like this.

When you click on the Status tab, it will bring you to this screen. As you can see, I have made a back up of some files and folders on the 12th of February. It'll give you a status for each drive.

When you click the Tasks tab, it will bring you to this screen. Here you can run or manage backups, perform a one time backup, recover my computer, recover files, and run the recovery point browser.

Here is the Tools tab and here lie some pretty nice tools, especially convert to Virtual Disk.

And as you can see, this is the Advance tab. A little less flashly but it gets to the point.

Recovery Disk

When you boot into the recovery disk, this will be the first screen that you see. Pretty much all you can do in this tab is recover your computer.

This would be the Recover tab, you only get one more option than the Home tab and that is to recover files.

The Analyze tab. Here you can scan for viruses, check for errors, explore, and open a command line window.

This is the Network tab. A few more options here, all of them self explanitory.

The last and final tab, the Utilities tab. These again are self explanitory.

If you have used one back-up program, you have used the rest. After having Norton Ghost 14 on my computer for almost a week now, it surprises and dissappoints. I wouldn't say it is a bad program at all. It's good at what it does and for most people, it will suffice. It's fairly easy and simple to get around and use. I beta tested this from the first build and it has improved a lot on some of the hang-ups that were first encountered. A big dissappointment and constant feature request is to be able to create an image from the recovery disk. Symantec has not delivered on our multiple requests in my experience of testing the newer Ghost versions. I would probably recommend this program to people if they needed a program to back-up their files and drives. As for the price, I have no clue because I received this for beta testing it.

Pros:

+Simple to use

+Good tools and utilities

+If you've used one, you've used them all

Cons:

-Unable to create an image from the recovery disk

-If you've used one, you've used them all

If there is anything you want to to go deeper into or clarify, please feel free to post and I will update my review to reflect those inqueries.

biohazard

Edited February 28, 2008 by biohazard

[Ritalin]

great stuff.

im just wondering how this compares to acronis trueimage

[b10h4z4rd]

If all you want to do is to back up your computer, both work fine. But if you want to make an image, I would go with Acronis. I've used Acronis TrueImage and it gets the job done. So it's pretty much down to if you want to make an image or not. It's been awhile since I've used Acronis, but I think it has some of the same features.

[Echilon]

Good review, personally I also prefer True Image. Looks like Symantect tried to do a 'web 2.0 appllication'... and failed.

[imis]

A very informative review.

[b10h4z4rd]

If anyone wants me to, I could write up a review of the new Norton 360 when they give me my NFR key.

[Zig28]

Thanks for posting this - I've been using Ghost 10.0, not to back up but to copy the entire C: drive on to 3 different USB HD's as my backups. I do this about 3 times a week, rotating among the drives. This way I figure I can plug any of them into another computer if mine fails -- which it has.

Ghost 10.0 started to give me weird error messages, then all of a sudden it kept trying to install itself and reboot the computer in an endless loop! I was able to F8 it and get in and stop it, then I de-installed it.

I bought and downloaded Paragon 8.5 after reading good stuff about it, and I've been playing with it for a week and have not been able to get it to successfully create an image or drive copy. It backs up using its weird formatting, but I don't want that because I don't trust that I'll be able to de-code the archive when the time comes. I want a straight backup where I can go in and grab exact folders, files, etc.

So it was back to the drawing board and just as I was about to pull out the card and buy Ghost 14.0, I read this and decided 10.0 was good enough for me, so I reinstalled it. Fortunately, I still have the disk and box. It's worked for me for a couple of years with no problems, so I'll give it another chance. And, it's "free" (to me anyway).

Don't know why these companies mess with backup software -- once you get used to using it, the last thing you want is to have some new interface or untested features. Of all software, backup software should have very deliberate, controlled and tested incremental changes, in my opinion, without any major surprises. Once you get used to it and know the ins and outs, you don't want to mess with a lot of change when the time comes to actually use it.....

Ziggy.

[fishie]

i have 2003 of ghost and wasn't able to image to a external usb device on a bunch of dell laptops. true image worked. i might have to try this newer version

[P A U L]

would I be able to use Ghost 14 to make a bootable image; similar to DELL's purple CD that they send with new systems, which can be used to restore the PC back to factory default?

[Joel]

would I be able to use Ghost 14 to make a bootable image; similar to DELL's purple CD that they send with new systems, which can be used to restore the PC back to factory default?

Dell's purple CD is just a Windows CD with Dell's Royalty OEM key and drivers on it. There's no image of anything.

[redvamp128]

Thanks for posting this - I've been using Ghost 10.0, not to back up but to copy the entire C: drive on to 3 different USB HD's as my backups. I do this about 3 times a week, rotating among the drives. This way I figure I can plug any of them into another computer if mine fails -- which it has.

Ghost 10.0 started to give me weird error messages, then all of a sudden it kept trying to install itself and reboot the computer in an endless loop! I was able to F8 it and get in and stop it, then I de-installed it.

I bought and downloaded Paragon 8.5 after reading good stuff about it, and I've been playing with it for a week and have not been able to get it to successfully create an image or drive copy. It backs up using its weird formatting, but I don't want that because I don't trust that I'll be able to de-code the archive when the time comes. I want a straight backup where I can go in and grab exact folders, files, etc.

So it was back to the drawing board and just as I was about to pull out the card and buy Ghost 14.0, I read this and decided 10.0 was good enough for me, so I reinstalled it. Fortunately, I still have the disk and box. It's worked for me for a couple of years with no problems, so I'll give it another chance. And, it's "free" (to me anyway).

Don't know why these companies mess with backup software -- once you get used to using it, the last thing you want is to have some new interface or untested features. Of all software, backup software should have very deliberate, controlled and tested incremental changes, in my opinion, without any major surprises. Once you get used to it and know the ins and outs, you don't want to mess with a lot of change when the time comes to actually use it.....

Ziggy.

That weird error message I had a theory back when I was testing version 7 I believe (it has been a while ago). But What fixed my issue back then- Something to do with rewriting over and over with similar images. Was to Actually put the Install Cd and do a full Format over the drive. Before ghosting the image back to the drive. Also note another thought is make sure that you have Indexing (Volume Copy/Shadow copy) turned off for the USB drive. I have heard of issues with that as well.

Though With the Light Weight Linux Boot Distributions... You probably could boot with them then use them to format over the drive to NTFS. Then Restore your image.

That is just my thoughts on the Error Messages..

As far as the Review- Top Notch- but please add for me Screens of System Usage (CPU Load/Memory Usage) I found that when I tested 9 it was a resource Hog. Since then I have given up on it. Other than using 9 to Ghost right after a fresh install. To a hard drive that I remove shortly after.

[P A U L]

you're right, i suppose what i meant was doing what proprietary computer mfg's do with their hidden partition and an restore image stored within it...

could i replicate something similar to that on my own with Ghost 14?? or... perhaps Arconis?

[Ci7]

THX for the review . :)

not much of use for me thro as i am using vista own backup solution

[+Warwagon MVC]

Can you make a backup from the restore cd yet?