Symantec Norton Ghost 2003 (Symantec-10024696)

Reviewed by: Anthony008

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Clear, step-by-step instruction. Back up entire hard disk or individual partitions. Works with Win 98, Win 2000, Win XP. CD and DVD containing the backup is automatically made bootable.

Weaknesses: Doesn?t work with Windows Vista. But that isn?t really a weakness as this software was written in 2003.

Overall Evaluation: I didn?t try the backup to a hard disk. I only tried the backup to a CD/DVD writer both connected internally and externally. The internal method (connected to a IDE controller) works so smoothly. The external method (connected to a USB port using a SATA/IDE to USB converter), even though meant to be more convenient in some situations, requires some care. Here?s the tricky part: when Ghost restarts the computer in DOS, the DVD burner cable can not be plugged into the USB port, because it causes the computer to hang up. So before Ghost restarts in DOS, unplug the DVD burner cable from the USB port, and then plug it back in when you see the message ?Starting PC DOS?? on the black-n-white screen. From that point on, it will work without any problems. The external method doesn?t work on older machines with CPU speed of 500mhz, though. In my own opinion, Ghost is better than Acronis in professionalism, quality, thinking, and language expression. It?s the solid product to own. If you have some DOS knowledge, you should have no problem using Ghost. If so many people can do it, you simply can not be an exception.