Ghost is a discontinued disk cloning and backup tool originally developed by Murray Haszard
in 1995 for Binary Research.
The technology was acquired in 1998 by Symantec.
History Binary Research developed Ghost in Auckland,
New Zealand.
After the Symantec acquisition, a few functions were moved elsewhere, but the main development
remained in Auckland until October 2009 at which time much was moved to India.
Technologies developed by 20/20 Software were integrated into Ghost after their acquisition
by Symantec in April 2000.
PowerQuest At the end of 2003, Symantec acquired its
largest competitor in the disk-cloning field, PowerQuest.
On August 2, 2004, Norton Ghost 9.0 was released as a new consumer version of Ghost, which
is based on PowerQuest′s Drive Image version 7, and provides Live imaging of a Windows
system.
Ghost 9 continues to leverage the PowerQuest file format, meaning it is not backward compatible
with previous versions of Ghost.
However, a version of Ghost 8.0 is included on the Ghost 9 recovery disk to support existing
Ghost customers.
Ghost 3.1 The first versions of Ghost supports only
the cloning of entire disks.
However, version 3.1, released in 1997 supports cloning individual partitions.
Ghost could clone a disk or partition to another disk or partition or to an image file.
Ghost allows for writing a clone or image to a second disk in the same machine, another
machine linked by a parallel or network cable, a network drive, or to a tape drive.
Ghost 4.0 and 4.1 Version 4.0 of Ghost added multicast technology,
following the lead of a competitor, ImageCast.
Multicasting supports sending a single backup image simultaneously to other machines without
putting greater stress on the network than by sending an image to a single machine.
This version also introduced Ghost Explorer, a Windows program which supports browsing
the contents of an image file and extract individual files from it.
Explorer was subsequently enhanced to support to adding and deleting files in an image with
FAT, and later with ext2, ext3 and NTFS file systems.
Until 2007, Ghost Explorer could not edit NTFS images.
Ghost Explorer could work with images from older versions but only slowly; version 4
images contain indexes to find files rapidly.
Version 4.0 also moved from real-mode DOS to 286 protected mode.
The additional memory available allows Ghost to provide several levels of compression for
images, and to provide the file browser.
In 1998, Ghost 4.1 supports password-protected images.
Ghost 5.0 Version 5.0 moved to 386 protected mode.
Unlike the text-based user interface of earlier versions, 5.0 uses a graphical user interface.
The Binary Research logo, two stars revolving around each other, plays on the main screen
when the program is idle.
In 1998, Gdisk, a script-based partition manager, was integrated in Ghost.
Gdisk serves a role similar to Fdisk, but has greater capabilities.
Ghost for NetWare A Norton Ghost version for Novell NetWare,
released around 1999, supports NSS partitions.
Ghost 6.0 Ghost 6.0, released in 2000, includes a management
console for managing large numbers of machines.
The console communicates with client software on managed computers and allows a system administrator
to refresh the disk of a machine remotely.
As a DOS-based program, Ghost requires machines running Windows to reboot to DOS to run it.
Ghost 6.0 requires a separate DOS partition when used with the console.
Ghost 7.0 / Ghost 2002 Released March 31, 2001, Norton Ghost version
7.0 was marketed as Norton Ghost 2002 Personal Edition.
Ghost 7.5 Released December 14, 2001, Ghost 7.5 creates
a virtual partition, a DOS partition which actually exists as a file within a normal
Windows file system.
This significantly eased systems management because the user no longer had to set up their
own partition tables.
Ghost 7.5 can write images to CD-R discs.
Later versions can write DVDs.
Symantec Ghost 8.0 Ghost 8.0 can run directly from Windows.
It is well-suited for placement on bootable media, such as BartPE′s bootable CD.
The corporate edition supports unicast, multicast and peer-to-peer transfers via TCP/IP.
Ghost 8.0 supports NTFS file system, although NTFS is not accessible from a DOS program.
Norton Ghost 2003 Norton Ghost 2003, a consumer edition of Ghost,
was released on September 6, 2002.
Available as an independent product, Norton Ghost 2003 was also included as a component
of Norton SystemWorks 2003 Professional.
A simpler, non-corporate version of Ghost, Norton Ghost 2003 does not include the console
but has a Windows front-end to script Ghost operations and create a bootable Ghost diskette.
The machine still needs to reboot to the virtual partition, but the user does not need to interact
with DOS.
Symantec deprecated LiveUpdate support for Norton Ghost 2003 in early 2006.
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 1.0
Released November 15, 2004, Symantec renamed the Enterprise version of Ghost to Symantec
Ghost Solution Suite 1.0.
This helped clarify the difference between the consumer and business editions of the
product.
This was further defined in February 2006, with the release of Norton Save And Restore,
a standalone backup application based on Ghost 10.0.
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 is a bundle of an
updated version of Ghost, Symantec Client Migration and the former PowerQuest equivalent,
DeployCenter.
Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 was released on December 2005.
It can create an image file that is larger than 2 GB.
Other new features include more comprehensive manufacturing tools, and the ability to create
a "universal boot disk".
Norton Ghost 9.0 Ghost 9.0 was released August 2, 2004.
It represents a significant shift in the consumer product line from Ghost 2003, in several ways:
It uses a totally different code base, based on the DriveImage/V2i Protector product via
Symantec′s acquisition of PowerQuest.
It is a Windows program that must be installed on the target system.
Images can be made while Windows is running, rather than only when booted directly into
DOS mode.
Incremental images are supported.
Requires Product Activation in order to function fully.
The bootable environment on the Ghost 9 CD is only useful for recovery of existing backups.
It cannot be used to create new images.
Since Ghost 9 does not support the older .gho format disk images, a separate CD containing
Ghost 2003 is included in the retail packaging for users needing to access those older images.
The limitations of Ghost 9 compared to Ghost 2003 were not well-communicated by Symantec,
and resulted in many dissatisfied customers who purchased Ghost 9 expecting the previous
version′s features.
Norton Ghost 10.0 Supports creating images on CDs, DVDs, Iomega
Zip and Jaz disks as well as IEEE 1394 and USB mass storage devices.
Supports encrypting images and Maxtor external hard disk drives with Maxtor OneTouch buttons.
Ghost 10.0 is compatible with previous versions, but not with future versions.
Norton Save And Restore 1.0 Norton Save And Restore 1.0, released in February
2006, was the renamed consumer version of Ghost.
It used Ghost 10.0′s engine, with the addition of features to allow backup and restoration
of individual files.
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 was released in November
2006.
This version provides significant improvements in performance, as well as the ability to
edit NTFS images.
This version also adds support for Windows Vista, x64 versions of Windows, and GUID Partition
Table disks.
However, the software does not fully support systems with Extensible Firmware Interface
firmware.
Ghost 11.0 supports saving and restoring from native Ghost image format and raw images.
Norton Ghost 12.0 Ghost 12.0 includes Windows Vista support
with an updated and more thorough user interface.
It supports both full system backup and individual files or folders backup.
This version provides a "LightsOut Restore" feature, which restores a system from an on-disk
software recovery environment similar to Windows RE, thereby allowing recovery without a bootable
CD.
Upon system startup, a menu asks whether start the operating system or the LightsOut recovery
environment.
LightsOut restore would augment the ISO image, which comes with Ghost.
The latter contains a recovery environment that can recover a system without a working
operating system.
Norton Save & Restore 2.0 NSR 2.0 has fewer features in comparison to
Norton Ghost 12.
NSR 2.0 offers one-time backups, file and folder backup, simplified schedule editor,
Maxtor OneTouch integration and modifiable Symantec recovery disc.
This version supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Vista.
Norton Ghost 14.0 Version 14.0 uses Volume Snapshot Service
to make backups and can store backups to an FTP site.
Ghost can connect to ThreatCon, a Symantec service that monitors malware activity around
the world, and performs incremental backups when a specific threat level is reached.
Other features include the ability to back up to network-attached storage devices and
support for NTFS partitions up to 16TB.
Ghost can manage other installations of version 12.0 or later across a network.
This version no longer supports opening .gho image files.
It stores images in .v2i format.
Incremental backup images created with Norton Ghost are saved with .iv2i filename extensions
alone the original full backup on a regular basis.
Older .gho image files can be restored using Ghost Explorer, a separate utility.
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.5 The latest version of the enterprise software,
it includes Ghost 11.5.
It was released in May 2008.
New features include: As of January 6, 2010, the latest build from
Live Update is 11.5.1.2266).
This updates Ghost Solution Suite to 2.5.1 and provides support for Windows 7 and Windows
Server 2008 R2.
Furthermore, Ghost 11.5 is compatible with BartPE's bootable CD using a PE Builder plug-in
for Symantec Ghost 11.
Norton Ghost 15.0 According to the Norton community on Symantec′s
site, the following features are available in Ghost 15:
Transition from DOS The off-line version of Ghost, which runs
from bootable media in place of the installed operating system, originally faced a number
of driver support difficulties due to limitations of the increasingly obsolete 16-bit DOS environment.
Driver selection and configuration within DOS was non-trivial from the beginning, and
the limited space available on floppy disks made disk cloning of several different disk
controllers a difficult task, where different SCSI, USB, and CD-ROM drives were involved.
Mouse support was possible but often left out due to the limited space for drivers on
a floppy disk.
Some devices such as USB often did not work using newer features such as USB 2.0, instead
only operating at 1.0 speeds and taking hours to do what should have taken only a few minutes.
As widespread support for DOS went into decline, it became increasingly difficult to get hardware
drivers for DOS for the newer hardware.
Disk imaging competitors to Ghost have dealt with the decline of DOS by moving to other
recovery environments such as FreeBSD, Linux or Windows PE, where they can draw on current
driver development to be able to image newer models of disk controllers.
Nevertheless the DOS version of Ghost on compatible hardware configurations works much faster
than most of the *nix based image and backup tools.
Ghost 8 and later are Windows programs; as such, they can run on Windows PE, BartPE or
Hiren's BootCD and use the same plug and play hardware drivers as a standard desktop computer,
making hardware support for Ghost much simpler.
Features Ghost is marketed as a backup program.
Its recovery environment comes in an ISO image file that needs to be written to a CD or other
physical media, if it is to be used on a physical machine.
This provides an environment to perform offline system recovery or backup.
Ghost can mount a backup volume to recover individual files.
Ghost can copy the contents of one volume to another or convert a volume contents to
a virtual disk in VMDK or VHD format.
Initially, Ghost supported only FAT file system, although it could copy other file systems
by performing a sector-by-sector transfer.
Ghost added support for NTFS later in 1996, and also provided a program, Ghostwalker,
to change the Security ID that made Windows NT systems distinguishable from each other.
Ghostwalker is capable of modifying the name of the Windows NT computer from its own interface.
Ghost added support for the ext2 file system in 1999 and for ext3 subsequently.
Discontinuation Norton Ghost was discontinued on April 30,
2013.
Support via chat and knowledge base was available until June 30, 2014.
Until it was removed, the Symantec Ghost Web page invited Ghost customers to try Symantec
System Recovery, described as software for backup and disaster recovery.
The current version of the enterprise software, the Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 2.5, which
includes Ghost 11.5, is still available as is the Symantec Protection Suite for Small
Businesses.
See also Comparison of disk cloning software
List of disk cloning software References
External links Symantec Ghost – Solution suite product
page Norton Ghost home page
Brief overview of Symantec Ghost and Norton Ghost versions
Symantec News Symantec Ghost Release Details
Symantec Ghost Solution Suite Release Details