How Does Norton Ghost Work?

As far as I am aware version 8 does a bit for bit copy of the hard disk. The later versions that can do incremental backups can not work like this.
For info the bit for bit copy works on disk and or partions and at the Dos level it can even run from a floppy disk and is much loved by geeks in this form.
The latest Ghost 10 is a bootable CD and can run an older Dos ghost version which does the same thing as the floppy.

Nels,

Yes, I've considered Acronis. Although I haven't been disappointed in Ghost yet, I've been tempted to delve into Acronis for quite a while.

Keep in mind that I'm using Ghost version 9. I've heard all kinds of stories about Ghost, but sometimes you have to wonder about the people who are using it. No, I'm not referring to you, Nels; I'm talking about those folks who sometimes try to get ''under the hood'' of their PC, too much. You know, there are folks out there who are trying to teach their PC to make breakfast for them. Well, everyone knows that PCs can't make breakfast; only Macs can do that! (Kidding)

The one thing I tried to fiddle with is removing Ghost from my Startup folder so it wouldn't be in my System Tray all the time; this apparently was not the right thing to do. This didn't permanently break my Ghost installation, but it required me to do a ''reconnect'' when I started it ... just a single mouse click. Additionally, it seems that not allowing it to run in the background (in the System Tray) all the time will prevent you from running an Incremental Backup. I guess that Ghost doesn't refer to the archive bit and it keeps track of new/modified files by another method.

Thanks, Nels. Next time it might be Acronis for me.

Tony

I've used PowerQuest for years and felt it was the best thing since sliced bread until Symantec got their hands on it. Tech support is basically someplace between Slim and None (None left town). Tech support seems to have only the most basic knowledge and skills with respect to OS's and the applications they sell.
My advice is to RUN like crazy from anything Symantic produces.
I run a custom computer and repair shop and Norton related problems are a substantial part of my business.

I have been using Ghost 9 for a year now. I had never had to actually use it until 2 months ago when a system configuration change caused me to use it. Then, I had to use it twice in a week because WinXP system restore failed me. Both times, Ghost worked like a champ. I have the backup set to store on my 160 GB external USB drive. A full backup runs twice a week and incremental backups occur several times a day. All backups are set to no more than 4.5 GB so that I can save them to DVD if need be.

Like many others I had heard the Ghost horror stories, in addition to bad reports about Symantec tech support. Fortunately I have not had to use the tech support. On a side note, I've had bad experiences with Mcafee tech support and will probably never buy anything from them again.

Norton Ghost uses the byte-by-byte method as opposed to the file-by-file methods used by most other backup software. With file-by-file, the software would compare files based on key points such as file name, the directory they're located in, the creation/modification date, and the size of the file, in order to determine if it has been changed. If so, it would be included in the incremental backup. Whenever copying data, be it a full or incremental backup, it would copy the data file-by-file from the original location to the backup location, just like you would perform a copy-and-paste job.

With byte-by-byte, Ghost handles it quite differently. When backing up data, it would copy each file over one byte at a time. This has three parts. First, when backing up corrupted file, it would backup every byte of the file that's still in tact, preserving the remnants of the file that may be able to be restored/viewed/read at a later time. With a file-by-file backup, that data would simply be skipped as on a file level it is incomplete.

Second, when doing an incremental backup, Ghost compares the hard drive and current byte-by-byte, in order. By defragmenting your hard drive, you changed the order/position of a large number of the bytes that make up your files. Remember, Ghost doesn't look at the file as a whole, which has remained unchanged, or the directory it's in...it looks at the bytes, which have been changed, in a sense. Thus, it backed the data up again.

Lastly, software that goes byte-by-byte is more efficient in some respects. It could care less if the files are heavilly fragmented and scattered all over the hard drive...it's going to go from the begining to end, backing up each byte it comes across until it reaches the end. Software that goes file-by-file, on the other hand, scans the entire hard drive looking for each byte of the file before creating the backup of the file. This takes longer and taxes the hard drive more, but you could say it's defragmenting the backup, in a sense.

Overall, Ghost is good at what it does, backing up your hard drive in its entirity, ensuring every byte is accounted for, and doing it in an efficient manner. The downside is that it cannot backup individual files/folders and when performing incremental backups may backup much more than it needs to.

Hope this helps,
John

John,

Yes, your explanation is consistent with what I've been suspecting.

By the way, about backups and Ghost in general, a friend has turned me on to a site that discusses this topic "ad nauseam." They address multiple versions of Ghost, their quirks, advantages, and other backup strategies.

For those needing some tips or who'd just like to read more, plz visit http://ghost.radified.com/ with a downloadable version of the guide at http://radified.com/Files/ghost_rad.zip .

One change I'm likely to adopt is doing my backups from DOS vice from within Windows. I like the certainty of knowing that my system and Windows are quiescent while running my backup. Although Symantec advertises that you can run your backups from Windows, I still worry. There are too many things running and I never felt totally comfortable doing my backups that way.

Thanks a LOT, folks. To be continued.

Tony

Hi,

I am using Ghost8.2 since 1 year .....
It worked for me very well.

Now what happened is, i can't find the path to run ghost and restore from the image i have made.

Pls tell me where to run the Ghost ???

The default is generally C:\Program Files, followed by "Norton Ghost," "Norton\Ghost," or something similar, but that's something you were given the option to change during installation. You can search your hard drive for it using Windows Search or reinstall it from CD if you cannot find it yourself.

John