Norton Ghost 14.0 (PC) - Software and Utilities (Norton from Symantec)

Protects your computer with advanced backup and recovery.Main Features:Incremental and differential backup: Backs up only files that have changedOffsite backup: Backs up your files to NAS (Network-Attached Storage) devicesFull system backup (disk image): Backs up everything on a hard drive or partitionGoogle Desktop Integration: Makes data recovery even faster with searchable backup indexesFTP backup mdash: Triggers incremental backups whenever ThreatCon reaches a specified threat level. Great for computer...

Customer Reviews of Norton Ghost 14.0 (PC)

Casper
London.UK
7th September 2008

A backup program that works well
I purchased Norton Ghost 14.0 about 10 months ago and although it took some time to get used to it, it works fine on my Vista system. As I am paranoid about loosing any data from my computer, I am using many of Ghost's more advanced functions, and I also restored my PC successfully with Ghost after a system crash 4 months ago. The advantage with Ghost as I see it is that you can make backups on all sorts of medium; external hard disk drive, dvds, etc. For each backup you can choose to keep older backups, giving you several versions of the same file in time. You can also duplicate backups which is useful if you keep a set of backup on a separate HDD outside your home. The scheduler makes backup tasks completely automatic - and you're not forgetting it! On the negative side you will have to read the user manual to familiarize yourself with Ghosts many functions, and the program can some times come up with error messages that are completely impossible to understand - and the link that is supposed to take you to Symantec's internet site to explain the gibberish does not help. However Norton has a free 24/7 pc chat line for technical support ( I have used it myself). Bottom line: Ghost does the job when it comes to backing up your data !

Andrew
West Yorkshire
10th August 2008

Ghost problem is FAT32
The problems that people are having with this Software is the way that it tries to make the image of your Hard drive, the default settings for this version of Ghost is it tries to do it all in one big chunk. Which is where it fails if peoples External Hard Drives are Fat32 File System, as it will save only 4Gb Clusters at a time, which was ok for earlier versions of Ghost, but as i found to my cost it isn't ok for this version.

I found this out after a lengthy on line chat with Symantec technical Support, i also asked them as to why there isn't information on this in the product packaging, because if it was then people wouldn't be giving it such negative feedback, they said they'd pass the feedback on.

So basically all you need to do to get round the problems with this software is to convert your external HDD to NTFS File System. by using the command prompt. Don't forget to do this in Windows Vista you need to Right Click Command Prompt icon and Select Run As Administrator or it won't work.

Hope this helps.

J. Watkin
Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear United Kingdom
19th June 2008

The Best Yet
I'm amazed there's so many negative reviews of this product as my own experience is completely different. Having used TrueImage 11 Home and Ghost 10 in the past with mixed results on a Vista machine I thought I might get similar problems making and restoring from backups? Nope, Ghost 14 has worked without a glitch, and does everything Its supposed too. I've used it on two machines, one a laptop, and they have both been restored more than once after I messed around with other software and caused driver problems.
I'm more than happy and would recommend this product.

Howes
Hampshire UK
13th June 2008

Dunno what people are moaning about?
I,ve had ghost 14 installed for a couple of weeks now. And I've had absolutely no problems with it. I've got a fairly complex setup (multiple Raptors in a SATA RAID 0 setup along with a number of EIDE drives) and it has sucessfully created an image of my system drive and restored it no problem. I found the recovery disc simple to create and it had no problem with my drivers (note it may tell you during validation that certain virtual disk drivers are incompatible e.g. those typically used by Anti-virus apps but ignore that). I've also converted a system image to an MS Virtual PC .vhd in a couple of clicks and then used it immediately without any problems. The interface is generally good and provides lots of clear plain english info. Much of the geek-speak from the earlier versions of Ghost has gone (which as a geek I actually understood and miss) and the average user, unless a complete PC beginner, should be fine. One gripe I have got about the interface is that the application was clearly written using .net giving it a slightly slugish feel. Another issue I have is a lack of feedback during some tasks that can take a long time (like the recovery disk creation), leaving you wondering wether or not the app has hung. Overall though, I'm not sure why others are having the problems they are, but its working great for me (and no I don't work for symantec :-)).

Happy man
Lincolnshire, England
9th June 2008

If only it did what it said it would do
Wish I'd read the reviews below before buying, as those comments resonate with me now! Couldn't get it to make a customised Driver Disk, and couldn't get it to back up folders and files. Not a lot of use then, though it promises to be a great bit of software. I heard that it didn't work on Vista (doubtless unfair hearsay)...well it doesn't seem to work on XP either - well not mine. May just be my machine, though it clears the basic requirements easily. Really wanted it to work, but as it doesn't, afraid it became the first thing I've ever had to return to Amazon. Grateful to Amazon for at least accommodating that process with the pre-paid customised return label! Happy Man not so happy today!

NB Bought 'Norton 360 All in One security' at the same time and it works a treat.