Norton Ghost 14.0 [Old Version]

I seldom use this product since and switched to another online provider

OK, as an Amazon Vine member I requested, and got this, free. Turns out that was a bad idea. I have used Norton Antivirus, etc., software for years and it seems to work pretty well, although it probably slows up my computers operation a little. So I thought, hey, a strong, function-rich backup program! And all I have to do is install and review it. How sweet is that? But when I mentioned that I had scored Norton Ghost 14 to two people far more knowledgeable about computers and software than I, both IMMEDIATELY and VISIBLY shuddered, and recommended that I not even try installing it. One of these people, an IT professional who makes his living going from site to site fixing the foulups of other IT pros, told me it was buggy, poorly documented, and did nothing much that light-to-moderate users would need anyway. He pointed out that Windows XP has built-in basic backup capabilities. My son -- who runs his own Website, plus blogging and gaming online constantly and maintaining a home network with four monitors, multiple hard drives and god knows what else -- told me he never runs anything Norton anymore because it has become bloatware that slows him down. So I didnt install Ghost 14.0. (Beat me, Amazon Vine! Scourge me if you must! I have failed you, although I may have saved my computers.) I did read the manual. Folks, here is a clue: it takes Norton 9 pages of 6-point type to tell the end user what he/she needs to run Ghost, and how to install it. Not a good sign for ordinary domestic users. Some of this is repetition, but most of it is somewhat technical information about what you need to install and run Ghost 14.0, and what may happen during installation. You do need to read this carefully. I did, and it succeeded mainly in convincing me that I wasnt going to even attempt an installation unless my daughter -- also an IT pro -- was on the phone with me. I may yet install this and then update my review. For now, however, a perusal of the many, many negative comments already posted here, plus my examination of the software manual, were enough to put me off.

Norton Ghost from Symantec. Symantec bought this great little DOS back up program and made it greater year after year. And I really loved it. There just wasnt anything better for a full system and program and data backup recovery from a disaster of any kind. I think 2005 version was the last good year before they ran it in to the groud trying to do everthing for ever body and take the place of windows system recovory points. I bought and tryed Ghost 14, what a mess. It would destroyed my Operating System ever time I tryed it. I went back to 2005V. and had an old backup that got me back up and running, however I had to do alot updating Software. I must say it is tempting to try Version 15 for the BlueRay backup. However I think Ill let others do the testing before I will buy any more of their products of any kind. Symanttec do away with incremental backups and make a good soild Backup progam with things like BlueRay, ext harddrives, good usb support,Bootable backup of all types like USB bootable thumbs drives. Come on Symantec Raise the real Ghost again with down to earth improvements that work stay out of others garbage cans. Just remmber you only have a limited time before people find you out.

Unlike the older version I have, Ver. 14 does not include the ability to clone a hard drive over a network.

Having been a user for Peter Nortons programs for more than 10 years right from Norton disk doctor to Norton PC tools, the Norton Ghost was a major let down. Right now, I am using Second Copy backup to backup data on my laptop onto my tiny external drive - it is simple, does basic things and easy to configure. Although I wish it had more features - the software works great and meets 80% of my needs. On upgrading to what seemed like a more professional better software - Norton Ghost 14, I very disappointed: - Very difficult to configure and use : the menu/UI is hard and not intuitive - My expectation is that I should be able to use this kind of software without having to go through any books/manuals. Even after looking at the help, it is not an intuitive peice of software - Buggy software : I get frustrated to see exception messages flying out from the UI when you are doing even the simplests of the tasks. Overall, stay away from this software - If you are a home user just wanting to backup your videos and photos, you should be able to get some freeware backup software or pay a small price of less than $30 to buy some decent software that really works.

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 been using backup software for 25 years, and I must say that Ive never had a more disturbing experience than Ive just had in with Norton Ghost 14. My boot disk developed some bad sectors which NTFS didnt seem to be mapping out, so I backed up all the data on it and used a low-level format utility to reformat the drive and map out the bad blocks. So far so good. At first, Norton Ghost running from the recovery CD seemed to do a great job of restoring the system partition: it recognized the unpartitioned disk, prompted me to initialize it, and automatically located the backups. But heres the thing: it restored the image TO THE WRONG HARD DISK, erasing the disks previous contents. Sounds like pilot error, doesnt it? Believe me, I triple checked the restore destination, verifying it by hard disk model number (unique on my system), by the size of the raw disk, and by manually double checking the system disk and partition table from within Norton Ghost before the restore. Everything checked out fine, but somewhere along the line Ghost decided to pick a random other disk and erase it. This is absolutely unacceptable behavior for a backup product.

I brought my pc in for some minor work . While I was there I asked the repairman to install Norton Ghost 14.0. He installed it, though he didnt really trust this updated version. Like others have said it does have its flaws. I cant recommend it.

Norton Ghost is a program that lets you back up your computer in the following ways: 1. Drive based backup: Backups the complete disk drive. This is my choice... if the hard disk fails, I can put in a new drive and get the system back in less than an hour. I also use this type of back up to refresh my system every few months... I install a new copy of Windows and all of my basic software, run a backup and anytime my system gets junked up and running slow, I just restore it back. 2. File and folder based backup: This backs up selected files and folders. Faster backing up but a lot longer to get a crashed system restored. You have to reinstall windows and all of your software before restoring the data. 3. Drive copy: Very useful when you want to upgrade your hard disk to a larger one. Ghost also has some nice features: 1. The ability to backup to another hard disk or a network drive. 2. The option to create a recovery disk specific to your computer. This option creates a CD or DVD with the drivers from your computer that will boot it so that you can run Ghost to recover your hard disk. You can create a generic one, but the specific one is much safer. 3. The option to back up another computer from yours (assuming your connected via a network). 4.Conversion to a Virtual Disk format: This is not a backup but something you do to a backup. This converts a drive based backup to an image that can be run in VMware or Microsofts Virtual Server. If you dont know what it is, you dont need it (and most people dont). This is the one function that didnt work for me. I tried to load a Vista image in VMware and after a load of messages about Vista configuring things, it crashed. Conclusion: As is typical with Symantec products, It works and works well (except for the Virtual Disk format using VIsta and VMware). The software is fairly easy to use, but if youre new to this type of software you will need to read the manual.

Works very well to back up my entire operating system of Windows XP after reading between the line on the instructions. The instructions could be a little clearer for system backup. When finished it gives an exact backup of your disk drive, I backup to a spare IDE drive and a USB drive. I am bummed that Ver 14.0 wont work with Windows 7 without buying a newer version