It's 2008 and another Ghost version hit the market, with some new options and features for the user to rely on. For backing up various files and folders, you have a myriad of solutions at your disposal, but, if you look for something more elaborate that can also image system drive and perform automatic backups (incremental or differential) according to your well set schedule, a tool like Norton Ghost always comes in handy.

The latest Symantec release for backing up your data preserves the same ease of use of its previous version but, despite the fact that they skipped a version, there are skimpy improvements and modifications. The interface maintains its design but there are several options that have moved their place (Recovery Point Browser changed its residence from Tools menu into Tasks menu), Home screen has been enriched with the Send Feedback option, allowing you to express your opinion on the benefits of the software; the Offsite Copy function has been included in Backup Destinations dialog.

Basically, the same red At Risk status will welcome you the moment the application is launched until all drives on the system are backed up, and there are slightly more benefits in this version, but very important and useful ones nevertheless. Offsite Copy can be enabled at defining a new drive-based backup and is an additionally security measure for the created recovery point. Immediately after the backup job is finished, Offsite Copy kicks in (of course, this has to have been previously activated and a location defined) verifying the availability of the secondary location and starting the copying of the recovery point.

As trivial as Offsite Copy may seem, it is completely automatic and makes for a very good precaution, should something happen to the backup files. The great part is that Offsite Copy is completely automatic and, if the secondary location is not available immediately after the backup process finishes creating a recovery point, the procedure will be re-scheduled for the time Offsite destination is available. This time, the operation is also automatic as recovery point process starts unattended and automatically.

During the copying operation, the computer will not be resource challenged, as all the action takes place in the background with limited impact on resources, allowing you to work unhindered. With the use of Offsite Copy, you ensure maximum protection of your files and create a safety net in case something happens to the original files and the restore point.

ThreatCon response is another option proudly sported by Norton Ghost 14 in order to automatically start the backup job if a user specific security level is reached or exceeded. It is a kind of malware detecting utility that triggers a backup operation whenever a certain level of threats is reached. However, the function will enter into force only when connected to the Internet, so it will not resist any local attack. There are four levels you can choose from, depending on how sensitive you want it to be. "Elevated" translates into "security threats could occur, although no specific threats have been known to occur", "High" level stands for "an isolated security threat is in progress", "Extreme" means that "extreme global security threats are in progress", while the last level will disable ThreatCon Response altogether.

Using more external drives for storing recovery points or as Offsite Copy destinations may become confusing at some point and you may lose track of the labels and drive letters assigned whenever they are connected to a system. Norton Ghost solves the problem by assigning aliases to any external drive you plug in. This does not mean that the label of the drive is altered in any way, but that the drive will have the same alias whenever used with Norton Ghost. This way, you can keep track of all recovery points and Offset Copies located on your external drives. Norton Ghost automatically detects the external drive the moment you plug it in and will launch the appropriate screen for making the necessary settings.

Testing the application's response when backing up data either on an external drive or on one of the fix drives resulted only in success. However, on the downside, backing up a folder to a DVD showed all sorts of failure. This issue is a reminiscence of the previous version and it seems it has not been fixed in this edition. Also, the application still cannot store recovery points on multiple CD/DVD media, and at one point or another chokes irremediably.

However, recovering files and folders from hard disk turned out to be a pleasant surprise as the process was completed accurately and speedily. There were no glitches and everything worked just fine on both Vista and XP systems.

It turns out that Symantec's 14th Ghost does a very good job at backing up your data on various drives and recovery is also successful. The application provides the safety net for creating an automatic backup to the created recovery point and everything is rolled in the background. In case your system feels a bit bloated and loses in speed, you can always adjust performance slider to improve on the overall responsiveness of the system. In this case, the backup will take longer to finish but you can do your work as well.

More flexibility is enforced by the support of command files (EXE, CMD, BAT) to be run at key points during the backup operation. These can trigger an action before data capture (after starting the backup procedure, but before creating the recovery point), after data capture or after the creation of the recovery point. Command files can be integrated with Norton Ghost routines and automatically perform certain actions (e.g. you may want to run a file that shuts down the computer after the creation of the recovery point).

Bottom line is that version 14 of Norton Ghost did a pretty good job, although the changes are not too visible (the support for NTFS partitions up to 16TB is appreciated). It still has issues with writing the recovery points to a DVD media, but, other than this, we encountered little glitches. ThreatCon integration is not exactly one of the best features sported by the application and its detecting threats caused frequent alerts about threat level being reached and starting backup job on various drives.


The Good

The application preserves the user friendly factor of the previous versions (even Casper is not as friendly as Norton Ghost) and brings a set of new features designed to deliver a plus of functionality and comfort when creating backups.

Offsite Copy feature acts as a safety net for created recovery points, copying them automatically to a user defined location whenever the drive is ready.

You can now send your likes and dislikes about the program to its developer and rate it on a scale running from zero to ten.

The Bad

Activating ThreatCon was one of my best moves with Norton Ghost 14 and setting it to a higher level may turn it into an obtrusive nasty little bug on the screen.

Backing up data on DVDs failed entirely on Vista, as the process either could not be completed or written data was corrupted.

There were moments when canceling a backup operation took well beyond half an hour, but that happened only because the system had not been rebooted after installing the software.

The Truth

All in all, the new Norton Ghost experience proved to be quite pleasant with minor exceptions. The latest version is not exactly revolutionary with regards to the features and options it introduces, but there are plenty of unseen fixes that may have been felt in anterior versions.

Total size of installation file does not exceed 90MB (so you can count bloatware out on this one) which amounts to a difference of about 20MB from the previous version. Give it a spin for thirty days as there is no restricted option for this period (save for the creation of recovery disk and LightsOut Restore).

Norton Ghost 12

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: