Norton Ghost

Question

As a PC service engineer I get paid for recovering data from people's crashed PCs.  So when my new DELL Dimension 5150 refused to boot into Windows, I wasn't very happy to have to work on it without being paid.  Then I remembered that I had installed the trial version of Norton Ghost that came with it.  Pressing Ctrl and F11 allowed me to select a restore point that was just two days old and, amazingly it was working again in half-an-hour.    So I'll certainly be buying it when the trial period expired plus another copy for my trusty administration PC and recommending it to my customers.    Does anyone else have similar experiences?  I presume it is also advisable to take a regular backup of your valuable data without just relying on Ghost backing up to another partition of the system disk.

ArtC · Answer

JHeals,

I had a simillar experience with my D4400 when it was unable to load my preferences. I attempted to use 'system restore' and I was unable to restore to ANY date... Bottom line, the files were there, I just had to redo my entire boootup and favorites status before my computer was running the way I wished. I have, just last month, renewed my Symantec's software and this year I went crazy as I purchased Interent Security along with the virus update. They (Symantrc's) offered me, for a minimal amount, a few Great ulities from System Works. This encluded Symantec's 'Go Back'... I have yet to use this option but as I understand it, Go Back is suppose to be better than System Restore that Microsoft provides. Now Sys. Restore DID fail me at this time, does ANYONE have any experience with Norton's 'Go Back'???? I have two other Dell Computers that are coming up for renewal..... ANY SUGGESTIONS / EXPERIENCES??? Thanks to ALL that have put up with my long messages. I look to the EXPERTS HERE!!!! and I will await any responses before I start thinking of updating my virus files. I have til the end of August.... Thanks again.... Art Caldwell

jheales · Answer

Yes, I agree. My frst attempt was to use XP's System Restore, but it failed. In my experiences, System Restore only works on 50% of the cases. No matter which Restore point/date that you choose. Windows ME was even worse.

Is Norton Ghost more reliable?

GreyMack · Answer

Imaging software can offer a whole new range of configuration and recovery options to those without, but it's been lacking from the majority of home systems. Hopefully the concept and opportunity will become obvious, and it will become a standard feature on every PC. It's hard to define a single best configuration for everyone, and a second partition on the same hard drive as the system it's supposedly backing up isn't the most reliable, and the inclusion of a trial version without adequate documentation, education, and training introduces additional complications which have already been demonstrated here on the forums. It's a start, but may be a shot in the foot.

I don't think GoBack has the same potential for system software configuration backups, especially since the current crop of leading and full-featured imaging software allows incremental and/or differential backups, and the concept of archiving existing files as they are changed is becoming more and more a part of indvidual software components, but GoBack could offer some advantage as an additional backup tool for some. It's important to know the function, limitations, and compatibility issues of GoBack to gain it's full potential without unnecessary complications, but that's true of everything.

I found a few articles on imaging, but none were both current and complete within themselves, and all required some fundamental understanding of the associated technologies. An imaging application that works without full comprehension of the principles will require Microsoft and PC manufacturers to come up with a better default configuration, which is way overdue anyway.

These two articles may be of interest.

http://ghost.radified.com/
http://partition.radified.com/

GM

jheales · Answer

Thanks.  This was a great help especially as there was a link in the first article to the Ghost 10 user manual which answered a lot of my questions.  Jonathan

ricky_bennett · Answer

as soon as i get bigger hard drives for my 2 computers im going to use my norton ghost for recovery in stead of windows restore

docro33 · Answer

would norton ghost retrieve a deleted fat file?

GreyMack · Answer

There is some capability to extract individual files, even with earlier the DOS-based versions of Ghost using Ghost Explorer, but the conditions vary. The manual for each version should cover that issue, under an apt chapter title and/or the index. I don't seem to have archived a manual for Ghost 10 yet, and I've already seen some mention of Norton Save & Restore (Ghost 11?).

Navigating the Symantec site usually works for me to obtain user guides or manuals, but Google works better for me when trying to get product installation/uninstallation information from there.

I don't see the answer specifically addressed for Ghost 10, but would expect the capability.
http://www.symantec.com/techsupp/home_homeoffice/products/ghost/nghost_10/manuals.html

GM

Windows General

Norton Ghost

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