Found one review of Ghost:
Skip Norton Ghost 2003 Backup/disk-imaging program is for PC pros only.
Robert Luhn
From the January 2003 issue of PC World magazine
Symantec Norton Ghost 2003 looks impressive on paper, but on the job this
backup-cum-disk-imaging program is for truly patient PC pros only.
Ghost 2003 has some good features. It can make an exact copy (clone) of your hard disk, from data to the state of the OS, so it's a natural tool for system recovery, duplicating your desktop PC on your laptop, or moving everything from an old PC to a new system. It can store drive images on just about any kind of media--including another hard drive in your computer, a network server, an external USB or FireWire hard drive, or various CD-RW and
DVD-RW/+RW discs. This version also adds Linux and NTFS support; largely
eliminates the need for a boot disk; and lets you join two PCs via a USB,
parallel, or network connection and then clone one to the other.
Despite claims to the contrary, however, my tests with a shipping copy
of Ghost 2003 clearly showed that inexperienced users should beware. The
program is saddled with a confusing manual, lousy Web support, and phone
support that costs $30 per incident.
I found its new "intuitive Windows interface" inconsistent. And Ghost
2003 crashed one test PC and refused to clone the drive on another, though it
would perform a standard backup. (However, Symantec said it was unable to
replicate my experience.)
One other feature allows restoration of specific folders or files. Load
an Explorer-like tool, pick a folder/file, select File, Extract, and then point
to the destination. Alas, it didn't always work. In one of my tests, Ghost 2003
cloned a PC to an external USB drive, but uninstalled the drive.
In light of these difficulties, I'd say this program should be tried by
power users only.
Norton Ghost 2003 Symantec. Backup/disk-cloning program is hard to use, buggy,
and poorly documented.
List: $70, upgrade $50
pcworld.com
And here are a couple more from Amazon:
It works if you know how to use it, April 2, 2003
Reviewer:
A software user
from San Francisco, CA
I use Norton Ghost 2003 to periodically capture an "image" of one or both of the partions on my computer's hard disk. On that basis I'd say that it's probably worth its price. On the other hand, it's not the easiest program in the world to use.
Ghost has a GUI interface, but the GUI provides only a limited amount of control. To truly use the program effectively you'll need to read about and experiment with Ghost's text-based command lines; this in turn implies at least a basic understanding of Windows batch files. (And some amount of perserverance...)
After you learn how to write the proper command lines Ghost will create images and restore Ghost disk images across "spanned" media, such as multiple CD-Rs. I for example periodically use Ghost to "checkpoint" both my Windows and my Linux disk partitions: If my hard drive ever fails I'll be able to quickly reload the Ghost images on to a new hard drive and resume using my system.
If you are planning to purchase Ghost, I recommend that you first visit Symantec's Web site and verify that your CD-R drive is on Ghost's list of approved drives. I had problems with my CD-R drive which I eventually solved by using a command line switch to slow down the rate at which Ghost wrote to the drive. (I also learned to use the highest-quality CD-R media I can find when I had mysterious problems writing an image to "el-cheapo" media...)
In summary, Ghost is most definitely *not* for a newcomer to computing. If on the other hand you have the abilty and willingness to read a command line reference document and spend a day or two experimenting with different command options, Ghost can get the job done for you.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Does what I need!, September 26, 2002
Reviewer:
A software user
from New York, New York USA
Bottom line - backup,backup,backup.
I previously had Ghost 2000, and recently upgraded to 2003. I really only use the program for monthly backups of my hard drive. I learnt the lesson the hard way when (2 years ago), I purchased a Dell that had an IBM 60GXP drive. What a mistake that was! I went through two of these drives in six months. Prior to my hard drive failures I did not regularly backup my hard drive. Now, all I do is monthly backup my system and application partition with Ghost. It makes an image which it burns onto about six CDs. The interface has been upgraded now so that the PC user can setup all the options in windows and allow the program to then reboot the PC into DOS and run the actual backup. It also installs the boot files needed to use the backup CD as a boot CD (need to ensure your PC can boot from the CD).
I am happy I have done this as I found out last week that my present Maxtor drive is failing (after a year). Once I get my new drive it will be simple exercise of restoring the image on my new drive! Easy as pie.
Some people still argue that the program is clunky and weaker since it still uses DOS. My view is that it is highly reliable, whereas other programs such as Drive Image, etc have been known to have problems. I highly recommend this program for people who want piece of mind that they have bullet proof backups. Note: this program is not all that flexible for minor regular backups, such as specific files.
update: 12/17/02
I just used Ghost with an external (firewire connected) harddrive. I had recently purchased an external firewire/USB 2.0 drive enclosure, and dropped an 75gig drive I had lying around. Anyway, I was able to save an image of my primary drive to this drive, no problems as the 2003 version of this software supports firewire. Just as a point of note, I had absolutely no problems but my firewire enclosure chipset was an Oxford chipset, which I understand has a high degree of compatibility, so your mileage might vary.
I was also able to boot up with the Ghost floppy and see my external drive, ensuring that I could re-image my backup to any new primary drive.
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Where is the compression?, June 4, 2003
Reviewer:
Sean Harty
(see more about me)
from Barrow, Alaska USA
I have used other peices of cloning software and always like making a copy of a new PC that I get so that if it dies on me I can get things back to the way the factory sent it to me. This would be a great product if my software was on a 1400MB HD. There is no compression to speak of and it feels that in the "image" of the data that I have it taking up space for secotrs of my HD that are empty. My machine has a 200GB HD with 186 usable in XP and the image that Ghost 2003 wants to make is around 70GB. I don't even have 10GB filled on the HD with the apps and data I have on it. Some of the features are worthy but feel that I should be able to span the data on a few CD's at the max not need a slave HD that is the same size. Thanks Symantec but I can always mirror my HD without your software.
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Highly recommended, best backup program by far.., June 2, 2003
Reviewer:
Gumby
from SE, USA
After reading the reviews in here with much hesitancy I bought the program over the weekend, and before I opened it went out to the Symantec website to check hardware compatability (which you should do with any software product these days just to be sure.)
I had used a prior version of Ghost and it was a little quirky (but it did work fine, with high quality cdr's) but 2003 seems to have fixed alot of problems and has some great new improvements. I started out simple and went for a straight image to CDR's.. while not the fastest method it worked without a hitch.. It also works great with USB external drives as well..much faster than cd's even on USB 1.. I've got 3 computers backed up on an 80GB external.. awesome! It does have limited DVD support as a few people mentioned but DVD's are new and it will take a little time to catch up.. I think the reason most people are having problems is not reading the manual, it is a complex program but simple at the same time.. All the answers are there if you look for them, too many people are just used to installing a program and figuring it out as they go along.. If you've ever experienced a hard drive failure or system crash without a backup (as I have) you quickly learn how important backups are.. With Ghost 2003 regular backups are a snap, get a USB drive and along with CDR's you can have 2 sets just in case..
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