<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Good Overall But A Few Things missing from the manual
Review: First off, I am a computer geek so I didn't have much trouble getting around some issues that came up which were not covered in the manual. For me, the program is easy to use and seems to work fine for my needs - simply backing up my personal drive. I would not recommend any imaging software to the timid. You should have a basic knowledge of hard drive partitions before touching this type of software. Here's what I'm doing: I am backing up my primary 13GB IDE drive to my secondary 40GB IDE drive. All of my programs reside on my primary. The secondary drive is strictly for backups and media files (MP3, AVI, QuickTime, etc.)- nothing that needs to be backed up. I am running Windows 98. The Ghost image files have a limit of 2GB. When a 2GB image file has been created (within my setup), Ghost will say that my drive is full and needs to continue on a new disk. There's still 13GB available on that partition (on my 40GB drive) so I know the drive isn't full. It doesn't say in the manual but just selecting OK is all that needs to be done to continue. At first, I thought this was an issue because I let Ghost create a PC-DOS boot disk. It happened with a Win98 boot disk so I finally studied the manual more closely and discovered the 2GB file limit. Ghost is not able to make a bootable disk using a Win98 boot diskette. Ghost includes PC-DOS to make bootable disks for different needs such as CD-ROM support. Since I don't need my CD-ROM for this, I just made a Win98 boot disk and copied GHOSTPE to the floppy so I could have full FAT32 support - just in case. In response to the reviewer who wanted the manual to have instructions for changing BIOS settings, that is not easy to do. Although there are a few primary BIOS manufacturers, PC manufacturers often customize the BIOS. There are multiple, possible ways simple settings could be changed on a PC. There is no real standard. This isn't for the Mac. Overall, I felt Ghost does what it claims it will. The manual is incomplete. More items need to be covered there. I had to figure out too much on my own. For Windows NT 4.0 users, nothing is said about the SID in the manual. I don't know if you'll need to search for additional software to create a unique SID for each Win NT PC. Ghost works well for my own personal needs, and I like it more than the backup software included with Windows.
Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST OF ALL IMAGE PROGRAMS
Review: I Have been using acronis true image and drive image 2002 by powerquest and I Can Tell norton ghost 2002 is the winner.
I own the cd only and the cd contains interactive instructions of how to use the program,very easy to use and to understand.
It Is cheaper than the other two. If you want easy way to make an image of your hard drive ,GO for This Beautiful Program.!!
Rating: 
Summary: It's certainly limited
Review: I have to sadly agree with many of the negative reviews. But I'm including thie review not to be negative, but to relate what I've found that you CAN and CAN'T do with this product. (1) As others have said, this isn't going to work with a network. And I guess if I wanted to directly burn CDs then I'd need a DOS device driver (good luck finding that for a Sony DVD+RW), so I'm glad I'm not doing that either. Fortunately for me, I'm working with a test machine that I deliberately configured with an extra hard drive just so I had a local place to Ghost back and forth with. (2) While Ghost does a fine and fast job shuttling entire-drive clones from drive to drive, it has this incredibly annoying habit: every time that I want to move an image drive/drive then it demands that I punch in the 15 character serial number. Sheesh! (3) This is a nit, but I found it annoying that on the one hand this is a for-the-home-user, reduced-functionality version of Ghost... but I still had to type in an organization name, or it wouldn't install. (4) I only need this to reset a single test machine, but I'd complain if I had other systems and was forced to buy a separate copy of this infrequently-used utility for each one. Were the license a bit more reasonable -- "go ahead and use it for all of the computers in your house" -- then I think Symantec would win the hearts -- and business -- of other small users.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent time-saving tool you can depend on.
Review: I've been using Ghost since the first versions, before the product's technology purchase by Symantec and the inclusion in the Norton series. This is simply a valuable piece of software for anyone using Windows systems and having no time to waste. Most users know how Windows slowly degrades (for many reasons) and needs to be reinstalled from time to time. Installing your OS from scratch can take quite some time, installing the main OS, installing drivers, installing essential software, configuration, all that can take a whole afternoon for a single home system. If after a complete install you create a ghost image, you will be able to restore the OS (even to an empty HD) in about 10 minutes (For a Windows 2000 Professional fully configured, for example), exactly as it was when you created the image. Ghost's main executable code runs in DOS mode, and surprisingly, takes less than 900 kb. That means a single bootable floppy plus the image file can restore your whole system back to the previous state. The process is extremely simple, you write the image, and then later write it back. Most newbies will have no problems using the default settings (for home usage). I've had a few problems with images failing to boot in previous versions, but in general, results are very positive, and I now ghost every fresh install. Some people complain about the CDR module. I have no opinion on that since I prefer to create the compressed images and record them to CD myself. If you know how to create a bootable CDROM with applications like Ahead's Nero, you won't even need Ghost's CDR part. You can also boot from a normal floppy and have the images in other sources like CDRW or a remote machine. I don't care for the Ghost Explorer, and to be honest, only use the single 800kb executable, but in any case, considering the pathetic size, this is one of the most useful and effective pieces of coding I've ever seen...Essential for all who have no time to waste, and above all, it is very reliable and stable. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Does exactly what it says it will do
Review: This is a great program. Very clear documentation. I bought it because I have two new Dell computers, and they don't come with a "Restore CD" that will return the computer to a like-new configuration. Instead, Dell seems to be shipping most of its computers with a "Windows Reinstallation CD". This simply re-installs a new copy of Windows over the old one, and leaves everything else on the hard drive unchanged. Old software is still on the drive, but is not acknowledged by the new operating system. (Old junk is on the drive, too.) A real pain. Using Ghost: I installed all the software I wanted on my computer, went to all the web sites to download all the updates, waited while I had to restart my computer countless times. But after I did all that, I used "Ghost" to create a copy of the drive. Now, if my system ever gets screwed-up, I can quickly restore it to this useful state. Only complaint: The manual doesn't have any instructions for changing the BIOS in the computer so that the machine will boot from a CD, as well as from a floppy. This is not hard to do, and makes the process of restoring to a backed-up copy a little simpler.
Rating: 
Summary: Worthless
Review: This is the most difficult and annoying software I have ever purchased. I am extremely computer literate and found Ghost to be very difficult to use. Then after backing up my old PC, it was even more difficult to use to restore to my new PC. AND then after all this I have learned I can't get a refund because I opened the box. Robert Nelsen, Stevens Point, WI
<< 1 >>
| 
