Norton Ghost 12 - Unique Utility, But Is it Useful?

Before virtual machine technology became mainstream, the preferred method for saving the contents of a computer at a specific state and then restoring that computer to that state was to use disk imaging (or disk cloning). When I was first introduced to this technology, there was really only one game in town, DriveImage Pro by PowerQuest. DriveImage was billed mainly as imaging software, not as backup software. Ghost came on the scene around the same time and competed with DriveImage. Both products were later brought into the Symantec line under the name Ghost when their parent companies were purchased by Symantec.

With the popularity of virtual machine technology, the need for imaging per se diminished particularly as a means of saving the system state. However, the power of imaging software could still be leveraged for creating and managing file or disk backups. Imaging software essentially creates a compressed copy of files or disks and maintains the structure and properties of those files or disks. This means, large amounts of data can be stored in a smaller space and then restored with no loss of fidelity, structure, or attributes. Symantec is now selling version 12 of Norton Ghost mainly as a backup utility.

Norton Ghost 12 does everything one would expect from a backup utility. The interface is easy

to use and the product is robust. Less clear is whether a product like Ghost has enough flesh and bones to make it worth buying. Many security suites now come bundled with backup software and even Windows Vista has a robust, built-in backup system that uses imaging technology much like Ghost's. Is Noton Ghost 12 worth the money? Read on to find out.

The Norton Ghost 12 user interface is clean and generally clear. It uses a tabbed interface with a common content area. The UI is broken down into five main areas: Home, Status, Tasks, Tools, and Advanced. The Status tab provides a clean view of all the backup jobs currently scheduled and a calendar view of past and future jobs. New backup jobs can be created by right-clicking in the backup job's table.
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The Norton Ghost 12 UI also includes a system tray icon with a well-endowed menu that allows users to perform many of the more prominent Norton Ghost 12 tasks and operations without having to open up the main UI. While I wouldn't expect many general users to be getting into the Ghost application all that much, developers and IT professionals may find the icon handy.

The Tasks and Tools tabs provide clear and easy to understand lists of utilities that perform specific functions relative to those general categories. The option interface functions like links in a web browser so it's a common and easy to understand metaphor. Each tool or task was launched as a modal dialog box so it was not possible to have multiple boxes open at once.
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The Advanced tab gives users a single-page view into most of the customizable features available in Norton Ghost 12. The tab is less clearly laid out than the others but provides more information on a single screen.

Once I got my mind around the fact that Norton Ghost 12 is billed as a backup and recovery utility, it made it easier for me to understand the feature set. From the perspective of a backup utility, Norton Ghost 12 has everything one would want. It allows for on-demand or scheduled backups and for on-demand disk or file recovery. It also includes a few extras.

Norton Ghost 12 supports full Recovery Point management. Recovery Points are full system backups. Recovery points can be "mounted" from within Norton Ghost 12. This enables users to view the files contained within the recovery point and restore them if necesary.

In my opinion, it is this ability to mount a backup set that gives a product like Norton Ghost 12 most of its power. As a backup utility, its usefulness is margina,l particularly for users running Vista or a modern security suite that includes a backup tool.

The other notable feature is the ability to create a VMWare virtual disk from a backup set. In some ways, virtual machine technology has made disk imaging less important for certain types of tasks (which is likely why Symantec is billing Norton Ghost 12 as a backup utility rather than an imaging technology). By creating a virtual disk from a backup set, users can attach the disk to a VMWare virtual machine and access the files on that disk as if they were on a physical hard disk.

Norton Ghost 12 also comes with a tool that will allow users to move files from one computer to another. Again, Windows Vista and even Windows XP included support for this feature. Therefore, it's more of a value-add than a main draw.

WhenNorton Ghost 12 is first run, the user is presented with a wizard that asks for registration information. Then it allows users to update Norton products and install Google's Desktop application which, according to the information on the dialog, enables file and folder recovery.
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The Symantec LiveUpdate did not work as expected. It attempted to update Norton Ghost 12 and, to my chagrin, other residual Symantec products that I thought I had uninstalled. When the progress bar reached 100%, the update seemed to hang. It remained at the same place for several minutes. The hard disk light on my computer was the only reason I knew Norton Ghost 12 was doing something. After a few minutes the UI updated again and provided a status report of the update. The updates required another reboot.
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When LiveUpdate returned from the reboot, the startup wizard ran again and took me through the whole process a second time. Thankfully, the tool showed me only the items that I had chose not to update previously.

Norton Ghost 12 functions mainly as a disk imaging tool. I used Norton Ghost 12 in a corporate environment to create "clean machine" disk images which can be restored to a specific computer in order to have a clean environment on which to test. Symantec is attempting to expand that rather utilitarian purpose by billing Norton Ghost 12 as a backup utility. The Easy Setup tool allows users to back up their entire hard disk and their "My Documents" folder with a single click.
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Changing only the default destination location for the backup (I saved the backup to my network), I accepted the other Easy Setup defaults and allowed Norton Ghost 12 to perform a backup on both my C: drive and my My Documents folder. Norton detected that I had chosen a network location as a destination and prompted me for the credentials it needed to access the other machine (these credentials persisted from session to session). I started the backup and then decided I wanted to backup to a different network location. I clicked the "cancel" button. Norton Ghost 12 told me that the operation cancelled, however, it continued to run in the background. On subsequent attempts of the same operation, Norton Ghost 12 cancelled the backup properly.

Backing up three folders (of 3.5 Gb) took just under an hour. The process of compressing data and sending it over a network does take time but Norton Ghost 12 seemed to perform more slowly than other imaging software I've used. I've imaged a hard disk of over 30 Gb over a network using Acronis TrueImage in about the same amount of time. A full system restore took only moderately longer.

When backing up individual files or folders, Norton Ghost  12 stores the backup in a hierarchical folder structure in multiple files. When creating a Restore Point, Norton Ghost 12 will pack the backup into a single file.
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Being able to mount a backup file (a restore point) as a disk drive from which files can be copied is one of the more useful features of imaging software. With Norton Ghost 12, any image file can be mounted simply by right-clicking on the file and choosing Mount from the menu. The image is mounted as a drive in either read-only mode or read-write mode (the user gets to choose at mount time). Once the image is mounted, it's treated like any other drive on the operating system.
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The product referenced above, TrueImage by Acronis, has a similar feature. TrueImage's implementation is superior in two important respects. First, when mounting a TrueImage image, users can choose to mount it in read-only or read-write mode. While Norton Ghost 12 will allow you to write to the drive when mounted, any changes are lost when the drive is dismounted. Second, TrueImage mounts a drive much more quickly than Norton Ghost 12, even over a network.

• Include the ability to save data to a mounted restore point.
• Tighter OS integration (Vista positioning).
• Update the look and feel.
• Speed improvements.