Norton Ghost 14.0 [Old Version]

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.

The default backup for Vista Ultimate works OK but it sometimes make my computer unusable. It uses so much disk activity that everything is extremely slow. Norton Ghost has the capability to slow down the backup so it will not interfere with the user activity. In addition, you can schedule it to backup what you want, when, from every hours to once a week. I liked it, although the UI is a little too slow to start up. One caveat. I do not use this software to recover full disks (although it says it can). I do not believe that things like that are reliable. There is always something that go wrong. If things go wrong, usually it implies that my hardware is broken, which translate to a new computer, so the old driver would not work.

Ive given up on Symantec products. Norton Ghost 14.0 has worked erratically from the start, on a variety of machines with a variety of hardware and OS configurations. The tech support staff in Bangladesh invariably conclude that uninstalling and reinstalling is the answer to your problem, no matter how many times youve done it. Youll get similar responses for Norton 360, which is even worse. I wash my hands of it, and I hope you never get your hands dirtied by this product.

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.

Being a computer repair and network tech geek for over 15 years, I know what I am talking about. SKIP this pathetic excuse of a product. Spend the same amount of money and check out Acronis True Image...there is a HOME version for about $45 and a Business Workstation version for $85 and up. The HOME version will be great for most users but the Workstation version offers Universal Restore...for a little extra cash. This means you can restore the PC image to another PC with dissimilar hardware. I have used it for years with much satisfaction! And it has saved me and my clients HOURS of frustration. There is no subscription except for updates...you get 1 year of updates. The product does not expire. You buy it, it is yours. Some magazines gave Norton Ghost 14 top ratings. THEY MUST HAVE BEEN BRIBED or biased by the ad revenue Norton/Symantec spends each month.

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 been using Ghost for years, back to the good old day when it was PowerQuest. Though there are some other application that are much stronger and have more functionality then Ghost. Symantec has let Partition Magic go by the way side, as after XP it not longer is useable. Do your research before purchasing it.

Product as described received quickly

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.

After installing Ghost 14.0 and making a backup, the program took over the computer. I could not run any other programs. I had to rebuild Windows.