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: Could Have been a Great Product
Review: Ghost has great potential but there are still bugs to be ironed out. I tested it on a Windows 98 system and a Windows XP system. The test was to backup my systems to CD-R's. The backups worked flawlessly but the Integrity Check to verify the backups, told me my CDs contained errors and that I had to start all over again. Also, Ghost caused my Windows 98 system to lock up repeatedly to the point way I had to re-install the operating system.
Rating: 
Summary: For HD to HD backup, Ghost is the ticket!
Review: Ghost is not for the timid, and I think the concept of Ghost may be confusing to people who are unfamiliar with a DOS prompt, or command line switches. It also doesn't help that Ghost is a little unfriendly to GUI people (Windows Only Users). I've used Ghost for a long time, and like others discovered previous versions of Ghost were not compatible with Windows XP. A further frustration is Norton System Works 2002 is also incompatible with previous versions of Ghost. So I set out to get Ghost 2002 and stumbled onto these reviews which was more then a little unnerving, even for a techie. I finnally broke down and bought it, and I'm a happy (Backed up) camper again. But I had a problem that might help somebody else. The default boot disk Ghost made did not work with NTFS, so I had to make a bootable floppy under Win XP, then select 'GET MS-DOS' (while making a Ghost disk), which Ghost will store in it's own folder for making future boot disks with MS-DOS, opposed to the default incompatible PC-DOS. Ghost 2002 is much faster then previous versions, and the Ghost.ini file allows customization of all the program defaults if no command line switches are used. I use this program solely for backing up (Disk Images) to other internal hard drives, and I don't know of a faster, more cost effective solution to this, then Ghost.
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: Intentionally Crippled Software
Review: I read the other reviews on this product Norton Ghost 2002 and was amazed at the mixed reviews. I go way back with the Norton products and like the other two products I'm using: Norton Firewall and Anti-virus. I've always found the Norton products to be well written and compatible with the PC. When I installed Windows XP on my system and chose the NFTS file system, my usual backup system no longer worked. I used to use the Maxtor "MaxBlast" utility to backup my drive to another drive which always worked great. Not anymore, I could not access the Windows XP drive with the NFTS file system. I needed a backup system, so despite some nightmarish reviews, I bit the bullet and bought figuring what happened to the others would not happen to me. My intuition was right, the Ghost cloned my drive onto a second drive in less than 15 minutes and all went smoothly. I then booted up with this cloned drive to make sure it worked, which it did, then I tested the applications which worked just like the original drive - Now I had a perfectly cloned drive. Also, mentioned by someone else, I was able to make an MS-Dos bootable disk entirely through the installation without going elsewhere to get the MS-DOS (and instead of using the PC-DOS default that may or may not work). When you go through the installation, at the end it asks if you want a quick format of your floppy which is pre-checked, but the other option is to make an MS-DOS bootable disk. Uncheck the quick format and check the MS-DOS bootable disk option and it will make one for you. Then there is an option to start the process over and you will have your bootable MS-DOS disk on which it can load the new configuration files for your new Ghost 2002 boot disk.
If you have Windows XP and want to back up your system to another hard drive, BUY THIS.
Rating:
Summary: But Not for NTFS
Review: I recently purchased Norton Ghost 2003which, I was told, was suitable for my Windows-2000 Professional/NTFS environment. The program could not produce a boot diskette that could "see" my second HDD containing three NTFS-formatted partitions. Multiple pleas for help to the Symantec Support website produced multiple suggestions - none of which worked. I needed to abandon my old Quantum HDD (my C: Drive) and clone it to one partition of the new 80 GB Seagate. In the end, I did achieve this, but no-thanks to Norton Ghost 2003. My success came my using the software "DiscWizard 2002" available (free) from the Seagate website. DiscWizard ran from my C: Drive under Windows 2000 Pro and successfully conditioned my Seagate HDD ready for swapping with the old Quantum HDD. To my delight, my computer booted up to Windows 2000 Pro without a murmur.
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: Feast or Famine
Review: If you can get Norton Ghost to work on your machine, then the software can make a cloned image of your hard drive for quick restore. However, notice the word "IF". Instructions for using Ghost are not straight forward. Creating a sucessful clone can be a real challenge. Additionally, there is no try before you buy option, so if Ghost doesn't work with your system, you are out of luck. I've had much more success with a program called Drivebackup from Newtek, Inc (NTI). With Drivebackup, I easily made a self-booting image copy clone of my Windows XP laptop computer for emergency purposes. Plus, NTI's website has a trial download option so you can make sure their program works on your machine before purchasing.
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.
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