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Entered CNET Catalog: 08/24/2004
SKU: 10281772
Manufacturer: Symantec Corporation
Manufacturer description
Symantec's Norton Ghost 9.0 provides advanced backup and recovery for your PC. Protect your data by making a backup of your hard drive's contents - without restarting Windows. Incremental backups save you time and disk space. You can even schedule backups to run automatically. Quickly restore individual files, selected folders, or the entire hard drive.User opinions
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User Rating: 
6/10
SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS SUCKS
Pros: NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE NONE
Cons: To many to mention
M.F.
User Rating: 
2/10
Backup is good. Recovery sucks.
Pros: It did save my HD.
Cons: Recovery will take longer than 1 day. Slooooooooow.
I commend GHOST for actually saving my disk, but restoring individual files is so slow that I will now switch to anther program. Backup is only half of the equation - recovery is equally important.
User Rating: 
9/10
Works fine with the way use it.
Pros: Very easy to setup
Cons: no cons, then again im not a pro
User Rating: 
7/10
SAVED THE BACON
Pros: Seamless Installation and reliable operation. Very dependable and simple to use.
Cons: Speed is not its priortiy.
User Rating: 
1/10
Do not buy Norton Ghost 9.0
Pros: nothing good
Cons: slowdown the computer, failed to back up
When I tried to copy the hard drive to a backup, it failed in the middle. When I tried to create a backup , it failed in the middle.
So the software can not do anything useful only slowdown the computer. I do not understand why Norton build this kind of slow-your-computer-down-only software.
User Rating: 1/10
Worst piece of software I'v used
Pros: None that I can think of!!! It generates $$ for Norton.
Cons: Didn't work, Ver 9 completely failed. I'd give it "0" if I could.
User Rating: 1/10
failed to complete after 3 hour backup
Pros: easy interface
Cons: doesn't work, wasted my time and my CD's
User Rating: 
5/10
Ghost REALLY Confuses Me
Pros: Fast & easy to use when backing up to external HDD.
Cons: A bit confusing at first; restore function is very odd (or broken, perhaps), too.
It seems to work quite fast, I must say; it certainly beats file copying (COPY and XCOPY), BUT I'm still VERY confused about a couple of things:
(1) If I just (a moment before) completed a back-up, how/why does running another incremental back-up immediately thereafter still find more to back-up??? Ghost is apparently finding SOMEthing, but I don't know what. Why don't I know? Read on ...
(2) Using Ghost's Backup Image Browser, even if I'm viewing one of my comparatively tiny incremental back-ups, Ghost shows me the ENTIRE drive as if it's looking "BEYOND" the incremental all the way back to the baseline back-up. Therefore, although I can see everything in my baseline back-up, it seems I cannot pick/choose other versions of a file that may have been captured in one of the incrementals.
(3) If you gracefully cancel an incremental back-up for whatever reason, your next back-up attempt cannot be an incremental. Because you cancelled the previous incremental, Ghost loses its place, so to speak. If you try to run an incremental, it runs a full baseline back-up instead.
Maybe there's a class that Symantec wants me to sign-up for, but it shouldn't be this confusing.
TonyNY77, a.k.a, "Confused when it comes to Ghost 9.0"
I think I should change my rating to "2".
I cannot find an option to remove Ghost 9.0 from my system tray. It's not an option when right-clicking the Ghost icon in the system tray, and I see nothing in Ghost's option settings to control this, either. I see no reason for it to be running all the time.
I'm still trying to figure out how to select a particular version of a file from a back-up set, but it seems to be impossible.
Simon & Garfunkel may be looking for Joe DiMaggio, but I'm looking for Peter Norton to rescue Ghost from Symantec.
Sorry, Symantec, but if it's THIS hard to figure out how to use your software ... and the documentation doesn't help much, either ... then something is awry.
User Rating: 9/10
I like it but 1 complaint
Pros: Can do all backups from windows with no down time.
Cons: CD sets created are not bootable, older versions did
I havent cloned a disk yet, but plan to upgrade my harddrive soon but dont anticipate a problem the older versions of Ghost always came through.
THE ONLY COMPLIANT I HAVE. Creating a drive image on a CD/DVD. It is great you can do it from the windows environment and it does work, ?no question? but. To restore with a CD set you have to use Ghost CD to boot the computer and go from there and this CD does not come to life that fast! With the older versions of Ghost you took your disk set , dropped in the first CD and booted the computer. Yes the first CD of the set was bootable and very quick and was straight to the point and operated in a DOS environment. The 9.0 Ghost way of CD recovery has more to offer as far as user options but I wish they also included the older way of creating the CD set also. But that is really my only complaint, which is not that big a deal.
User Rating: 1/10
Ghost = Nothing But Trouble
Pros: Can't think of any
Cons: Latest version renders product useless
User Rating: 1/10
Terrible Program
Pros: There is nothing good about this program.
Cons: Slow, can't uninstall, lousy support
I'm running XP Pro. When I uninstall this program, it disables my CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives.
Stay away!!!
User Rating: 1/10
Don't waste your MONEY, I'm not joking
Pros: In theory it looks good
Cons: no product support, never got it to work with my laptop drive, SLOW SLOW SLOW, 7hours to do a laptop drive
User Rating: 2/10
Norton Ghost Conflicted with XP Home Edition
Pros: Didn't see any
Cons: Problem with Windows XP; Needs extra disk drive; Memory hog
After it was loaded on my Dell Dimension 8100, Pentium 4, 1.3 MHz, 40 Gb Hard-Drive, 256 Mb RDRAM desktop, Windows start-up time lengthened greatly...at least a minute or two. It took a long time for system tray icons to load and once the Ghost icon appeared, my computer went into a Microsoft error reporting mode, just about everytime. The Microsoft error message said that they had no fix for it and to seek help via Symantec.
Also, since my hard-drive was space limited and I did not have a separate, external drive for Ghost to back up to, I've deleted the program. This has led to improved computer response. I've decided to rely on Norton/Roxio Go Back for emergency situations.
Documentation about Ghost was nil in the program box for Norton Systemworks, Premium Edition. Nor is there any words about using Ghost along with Go-Back another safety utility supplied in the program package. Recommendation for the home user is to purchase "Systemworks 2005" and pass up the Premium Edition containing Norton Ghost 9.0
User Rating: 
8/10
Maybe I'm just lucky, but...
Pros: Easy install, sensible menus
Cons: Image viewer a bit slow
First backup of about 25 gigs took just under 20 minutes and was a complete image including all system files. I'm satisfied.
User Rating: 6/10
Norton Ghost is okay
Pros: It helps you restore your computer in the event of a virus attack, etc
Cons: Very slow, might not be totally correct, always verify your image before restoring the drive
The problem I was having was not related to Ghost, but damaged cdrs. I got new cdrs, ran the program, backed up, and it worked. So it had to be related to the cdrs, but I still give this program a 6, because it still takes long to make a backup and verify and it can be a dangerous program if you don't know what you are doing.
Always make more than one backup, if the one backup fails, you can try the other backup and so on. Don't rely on one backup image set.
User Rating: 2/10
CRAP: crashed my windows XP system... whatever i selected...
Pros: can image a system!!!!
Cons: Crashes system, slow and cannot image a computer on the network
User Rating: 1/10
The worst piece of software I ever had the misfortune even to try
Pros: Are you kidding me ? NONE
Cons: Everything; the design; the slowness; the bugs;
This is not the first Norton/Symantec software that I am having trouble with. I faced problems with Antivirus, System works, Internet Security, and now this. I have made my decision, folks; NEVER A NORTON/SYMANTEC SOFTWARE AGAIN, EVER, NEVER, EVER...
User Rating: 2/10
A very disappointing upgrade
Pros: Runs from windows with with multiple support (usb firewire etc.)
Cons: Too slow with a high memory requirement..
This new version (9.0) has all kinds of problems. On one of my computers it fales to recognize a hard drive from the recovery disk. I can't get get a good back up on another (either by hard drive,cd-rom,firewire or usb) and the computer it does run on, it's so sloooow. One could die waiting for the recovery disk to load. I also don't understand why we need 256k memory for a backup program that previous versions required hardly any.
I not only removed the program from my computers but am also trying to remove it from my memory.
256k should be 256mb
User Rating: 8/10
Works Fine For Me!
Pros: Fast backup to external drive
Cons: Takes too long to boot to recovery CD
My only problem thus far with the program is process to restore from the bootable CD. The boot process takes what seems like years, and I have to remember to press F6 at the beginning of the process to have it load the Ultra 133 drivers from a floppy. Otherwise, it won't recognize my 2 internal hard drives. There should be a process to burn a recovery CD with all drivers and software needed.
Also, being a huge fan of the old Powerquest (I've been using Partition Magic for years, and tried Drive Image and Drive Copy some time ago), it somewhat saddens me that they were bought out by Symantec. Although I consider myself very advanced in PCs and seldom need support, I know from experience that if you need support from Symantec beyond the knowledge base or FAQs, you are going to have to pay through the nose. Why they won't give you, say, 30 days free from the date of purchase? They have to be losing customers based on this policy.
Although others don't like the idea, I would like the capability to do backups from the boot disk like the old Ghost. It just makes me nervous to do a backup of the system partition while windows is running.
I neglected to mention one other irritation about Ghost.
After the install, I ran Live Update to see if there were any updates. Sure enough, it downloaded Ghost 9.0.2.3981. However, if I have to do an emergency restore, the CD still has the 9.0 version on it. This is another reason to have the capability in Ghost to burn a new recovery CD to be sure you have the same version on the CD as is on your PC, including any needed drivers as metioned above.
Also, I sent an email to Symantec Customer support asking them what changes were made for the maintenance release I just downloaded. Nowhere on the Symantec website is there an explanation of the fixes and/or enhancements made. The response was difficult to read (horrible broken english - from somewhere in India no doubt), and only told me how to confirm what version I had! It absolutely did not address my question, which was to find out what specifically had changed in this new version. I pray that I never need support, 'cause I've got a feeling its going to be difficult having an inteligible conversation with someone to whom English is a second language!
User Rating: 8/10
It works for me.
Pros: Automatic scheduled full and incremental backups. Bootable recovery CD..
Cons: Documentation needs work.
Scheduled full and incremental backups work well over a network to a dedicated backup hard drive. Speed is OK over a 100 Mbps network and there is no degradation of performance on the machine where Ghost 9.0 is installed.
The bootable recovery CD is a little slow to get started but when you are at the point where you need that who cares about speed the important thing is to get your system back with no loss of data. You can access the backup drive over your network and completely restore a crashed disk to a new one. If you have never had a hard drive crash, you will one day and you?ll thank your lucky stars that you spent a few dollars on Norton Ghost 9.0 and the storage space required to store your backups.
Is Acronis True Image 8.0 better? I don't know I haven't tried it and don't see any need to do so.
User Rating: 1/10
Consideer it a $ 20.00 + donation to Symantec.
Pros: The brand name. Period.
Cons: Flatly stated: Does not work. Period
I am asking for a return.
User Rating: 9/10
Excelent software
Pros: Very goood
Cons: None that I can find
It makes a prefect back up. Larry Mondello
Find great tips at
www.larry-mondello.com
User Rating: 2/10
How to ruin PowerQuest
Pros: can be cheap
Cons: You get what you pay for
Now this is a product... fast and easy to use... I was apprehensive when I read some of the reviews but True Image came through... I'm going to standardize this on my Company... I see on Acronis.com they've got a console controlled version... I'm evaluating that product next.
User Rating: 
4/10
this product does not support all disc drives
Pros: have fully use it yet
Cons: see opinion down below
altell4656@msn.com
User Rating: 2/10
Not worth the money
Pros: copies data fine
Cons: doesn't work as advertised
User Rating: 8/10
It works just fine when backed up to Internal or External HDD!
Pros: It does what it is supposed to do.
Cons: Didn't work with optical drive backups.
I have also had a failure with a backup using optical drives so I cannot recommend that function as a method if that is what you are looking for.
One glitch is you elect to purchase this program is when it is ?ON?, every so often it takes over your PC for 20 to 30 seconds at a time. To avoid this if it becomes a nuisance to you is to turn it off manually in ?Services? in Windows XP and turn it back on when you want to have it run in the background for an automatic backup.
Even with some of it's quirks, it has saved me from going ballistic many a time!
User Rating: 4/10
Don't use this program to migrate your system to a new hard drive
Pros: Will make an exact copy of any mounted drive in Windows.
Cons: Drive Copy feature does not rewrite registry values to allow the system to function properly.
Because Ghost makes an EXACT copy, I found that my system would not boot because drive letters had changed, devices had changed, and those changes were not reflected in the System Registry.
If you're looking for a software tool to migrate your system to a new, larger hardrive: look elsewhere.
User Rating: 1/10
Buy this if you like to waste your time
Pros: I learned a valuable lesson
Cons: Norton Ghost 9.0
User Rating: 1/10
Very very User Unfriendly
Pros: Can't think of any
Cons: Slow, unreilable & unstable
I have enough of this software. I am going for a refund.
User Rating: 1/10
Horrible Software
Pros: Only Packaging
Cons: Too much to list
Setup: Dell 4300 Desktop & HP Laptop, Sony 530UL External DVD writer via USB
First problem: It wouldn't completely finish writing to the DVD and would eject it. After going through 9 Fuji DVD+Rs for the laptop hard-drive (30 GB in size), it finally crapped out with a message "Error E7D1001F, Unable to write to file"
Next Problem: Should have given it up now, but being a sucker for punishment, tried to backup the Dell. This time around, moved to Sony DVD-R discs, hoping that I'll have better luck. Well, the damn thing wouldn't even start the backup, kept ejecting the tray everytime I pushed it in with a new DVD-R disc.
Tried many combinations of the options (standard vs high compression), installing and NOT doing a live update.....had different outcomes each time, but none succesful.
Such a shame, Norton 2003 was great, except for the DOS bootup. I didn't even bother with a trial version assuming that this'll be a bigger/better version, but boy was I wrong. Last time with any Symantec/Norton product..
Oh yeah the email support sucks, absolutely unhelpful
User Rating: 1/10
Rather just burn your money
Pros: can't think of any off-hand
Cons: see opinion
Terrible product. My last after supporting Symantec for well over ten years.
Note: after doing a system restore, my computer is fine.
User Rating: 
10/10
Perfact Solution For backup in windows environment
Pros: You Can Restore System for the computer, For professional Using it is Fantastic!!!
Cons: Restore Disk require High System specs
