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.
