Creating a Hard Drive Image using Norton Ghost

This is a tutorial of how to take an image, or backup, of a computer using Norton Ghost. I have used the Ghost program in the past and always found that the best recovery scenario was to use a restore floppy. It always worked just fine. This is a review of the Norton Ghost hard drive imaging process.

I downloaded the program from the Symantec site and installed it with no problems. I have a bad habit of not reading the directions and just trying the program. I don’t believe it should take a 5 hour training course to use a program that I am semi familiar with. This is what I found.

After the installation, live update and a reboot, this screen came up.

Easy Setup

I plugged in a Lacie external hard drive and Norton Ghost found it with no problems.

New storage device found

As you can see on the next screen, Norton scanned my system and recommended this strategy. Of course, I took the recommended settings.

recommended settings

The recommended settings on this screen looked like what I wanted to accomplish so I accepted it and clicked next.

Define Backup Wizard

Of course I wanted to choose my C Drive.

Choose Drive C

I had to think about this next screen for a minute. The recommended setting looked like what I wanted but the other choice said that I should always create an independent recovery point. I took the recommended setting and clicked next.

Recovery Point Type question

Norton Ghost chose my external drive as the backup destination.

Backup Destination

Then there were a couple other screens that really didn’t tell me much so I took the defaults to get to the next screen. This screen just tells you what the program is going to do. It looks good to me at this point, so I checked the Run Backup Now checkbox and smacked the Finish button.

Completion of the Define Backup Wizard

All is going well. As you can see, I can still work while the program executes its commands, which is a great feature.

Progress and Performance

When Norton Ghost was finished with the image, I checked to see if the file were indeed where it was supposed to be. It was.

View Image File Created

So far, so good. Norton Ghost created an image on a separate drive so that I can store that file in a safe location in case something happens to my computer. Now let’s see how Norton Ghost does at a restore of this image in the next tutorial.

On a scale of Bytes to Brontobytes, Norton Ghost hard drive imaging gets a Petabyte. The imaging process worked but there were a lot of steps that could have been eliminated to make the disk imaging process easier.

Norton Ghost 15

Norton Ghost 15 - Too many unexpected things can happen to your computer that would make you wish you had this program. If your hard drive crashed, Ghost would be there to restore your data to a new drive. If the Operating System (Windows) crashed, Ghost 14.0 can restore it back to a working state in minutes! Check the Norton Ghost Restore Process.

See all of the Advanced Backup and Recovery features of the new Norton Ghost

Post your comments or questions about Norton Ghost

Comments	Date
By Randy	2010-07-20 15:11:08
Those shots are from the previous version but not much changed so a new review of ghost didn’t seem necessary. There is a Symantec Ghost Solution Suite for mass deployment and imaging. More info here: http://www.symantec.com/business/ghost-solution-suite
By Phil Pense	2010-07-20 14:23:08
Are these screenshots that of Norton 15? Additionally, is there a professional version of norton for IT professionals performing a high volume of imaging? Much thanks for an informed reply.
By kelvin	2010-07-19 12:25:37
ghost
By Bob D.	2010-06-11 19:33:01
Just purchased Norton Ghost 15. The only drawback is that if you're cloning/ghosting an older drive to a newer drive with the intent of replacing the older drive, expect trouble. There is NO drive re-lettering feature. Example: Older 80GB HD low on space, want to replace it with a 500GB HD. Normally you slave that 500GB into the system and do your cloning - BUT that drive is assigned (say) drive letter D: (and it will STAY drive D:). Do NOT use the Computer Mgmt snap-in, it will NOT re-letter any boot/system drive. And guess what drive letter all your reg-keys point to... I made the mistake of thinking I could re-letter my C: to E:, then re-letter the clone drive (D:) to C: - NOT HAPPENING!! And you've just hosed your C: drive. This means you will hang at the logon screen, never getting the logon prompt..! RecoveryConsole will not fix this problem. I had to pull the drive, and slave it into another system, launch regedit, highlight HKLM, import hive -> Drive(?), windowssystem32config and the "SystemMounted Devices" key. Changed the key that had "D:" on it to "C:". Unload the hive (MUST DO!). Pull the drive, and put it back into the other system, got on my knees and prayed that it would work - it did... But what a nightmare! All Symantec had to do was give the option to re-letter, and I would have been finished in 5 minutes (minus the cloning time). Hope this helps, ~Bob.
By Chris Lowther	2010-06-05 23:26:26
Source and destination drives do not start after I perform Copy My Hard Drive operation in Norton Ghost 15.0 on Windows 7. My machine was pre loaded with Windows 7 Enterprise and I do not have a Windows Installation Disc. I cannot find Startup Repair loaded on on my hard disc. Anyway I might create/download it? Thanks.
By jakirajam	2010-05-28 15:03:33
I HAVE TAKEN C DRIVE BACK BY USING NORTON GHOST SOFTWARE. BUT I DONT KNOW HOW TO UTILISE THE BACKUP FILES . MEANS WHAT IS THE PROCESS OF RECOVERY THE SYSTEM BY USING BACKUP DATA. PLEASE ARRANGE SCREEN SHOTS IN ANSWER
By sumit	2010-04-30 07:30:46
suppose my system is working fine with some installed programs then i make a ghost image of it, but suppose after some use my windows gets corrupted then can i get origan windows and all the programs installed during imaging, thanks
By Jim	2010-02-04 09:15:53
Yes, you can configure Ghost to backup multiple drives. While I don't find the wizard particularly intuitive, once you get it configured and scheduled it will pretty much take care of itself.
By Lewis Eigen	2010-02-03 18:33:53
I am thinking of buying Norton Ghost for backup. My laptop computer however has two (2) hard drives--one 360 gb and the other 500 gb. Can i set Ghost to automatically backup BOTH drives the way I do with my Windows 7 OS?
By mukulmishra	2010-01-01 05:55:59
thnx budy plz be in tuch