Norton Ghost 2003 [OLD VERSION]

by Symantec

Product Details

Product Manual [1.22mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006FXML
• Item model number: 10024696
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 28, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,810 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #58 in Software > Utilities > Backup
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

RETAIL 98/W2K/WME/NT/XP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does what I need!, September 26, 2002

By 

J. Davey "justin09" (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Norton Ghost 2003 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Bottom line - backup,backup,backup.
I previously had Ghost 2000, and recently upgraded to 2003. I really only use the program for monthly backups of my hard drive. I learnt the lesson the hard way when (2 years ago), I purchased a Dell that had an IBM 60GXP drive. What a mistake that was! I went through two of these drives in six months. Prior to my hard drive failures I did not regularly backup my hard drive. Now, all I do is monthly backup my system and application partition with Ghost. It makes an image which it burns onto about six CDs. The interface has been upgraded now so that the PC user can setup all the options in windows and allow the program to then reboot the PC into DOS and run the actual backup. It also installs the boot files needed to use the backup CD as a boot CD (need to ensure your PC can boot from the CD).

I am happy I have done this as I found out last week that my present Maxtor drive is failing (after a year). Once I get my new drive it will be simple exercise of restoring the image on my new drive! Easy as pie.

Some people still argue that the program is clunky and weaker since it still uses DOS. My view is that it is highly reliable, whereas other programs such as Drive Image, etc have been known to have problems. I highly recommend this program for people who want piece of mind that they have bullet proof backups. Note: this program is not all that flexible for minor regular backups, such as specific files.

update: 12/17/02
I just used Ghost with an external (firewire connected) harddrive. I had recently purchased an external firewire/USB 2.0 drive enclosure, and dropped an 75gig drive I had lying around. Anyway, I was able to save an image of my primary drive to this drive, no problems as the 2003 version of this software supports firewire. Just as a point of note, I had absolutely no problems but my firewire enclosure chipset was an Oxford chipset, which I understand has a high degree of compatibility, so your mileage might vary.
I was also able to boot up with the Ghost floppy and see my external drive, ensuring that I could re-image my backup to any new primary drive.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It works but Symantec should be ashamed, April 3, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Norton Ghost 2003 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Ghost works on my system. Quick - easy - efficient. So why only 3 stars? Because Symantec is so heavy handed with the product that I will simply never purchase from them again. All small things but together they leave a bad taste in my mouth.

1. When you first install Ghost there is a required profiling questionnaire. Things like age, sex, job, etc. There is no way to cancel out of this without aborting the install. I'm sorry but that is unacceptable.

2. If you use the download version as I did you must leave the program wherever you install from. If you think you will simply burn the download onto a CD, install and happily use Ghost you are mistaken - it references the install program itself. Why Symantec? Why?

3. There is a system tray app and system service that must be running at all times or whenever you access a folder with a .gho file extension Ghost will attempt to reinstall itself. I guess it depends on how you use Ghost. If you use it for scheduled backups then this is no problem. My machine requires me to boot off floppy or CD to run Ghost. So, in my case this is nothing but a resource vaccuum. There is no choice. If you attempt to remove the sys tray app or disable the Ghost service you will pay the price whenever you access a volume or folder with a .gho extension - Ghost will yet again try to reinstall itself.

The Ghost application itself is a professional piece. It works well and the interface is clean. However, it is the opinion of this user the folks at Symantec need to take a serious look at how they treat the people who are feeding them. I do not find it acceptable to be used as a instrument of social profiling and I want options when I install a program. Bite the hand that feeds you and you will eventually find yourself one hungry puppy.

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ghost 2003, best hard drive image maker yet., September 22, 2002

By 

Roger D. Price (Ogden, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Norton Ghost 2003 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

The new Ghost 2003 supports USB 1.1, 2.0 and 1394 Firewire hard drives and cdrw and dvd-rw drives. You can create a single floppy disk that will let you save a image of your hard drive to a 2nd partition of your hard drive, a 2nd hard drive, cdrw drives ( will span multiple cdr & cdrw discs), dvd-r drive, external usb 1.1 & 2.0 hard drives and 1394 hard drives.

You can restore you saved image from the same single floppy disk.

Ghost will create a virtual partition and boot to pc dos to image your hard drive without the use of a floppy. Caution, if you cannot boot to your hard drive, you must create a bootable floppy or cdrom to restore your image.