BACKUP TO THE FUTURE Norton Ghost is the easiest way to automatically back up and recover your entire system, restore lost files, and optimize backup disk space. Here is a look at its features.

Features
Easy Setup is perfect for beginners-it automatically scans your computer and offers to back up your entire file system. There is a variation of this in the Backup Wizard for users who want to tweak the settings of the backup process. There are two main tasks that Ghost performs-Backup and Recovery. The user first has to back up before he can perform a recovery. The program offers the option to either schedule a periodic backup or run a one-time backup to create an independent recovery point without saving the job for future use. If the system crashes, it will be possible to view and select from recovery points to restore from in the 'Recovery Point Browser'.

The tools available in this program allow the user to manage the backup destination to optimize the amount of hard drive space used to store backups, copy an existing recovery point to CDs, DVDs and external storage devices, convert them into virtual disks, for instance a during the backup process, the program affects the responsiveness of other applications, there is a performance slider control which lets the user adjust the amount of your computer's resources the process is allowed to utilize.



Ghost also integrates with Google Desktop, so if it's installed on a computer it can be operated via Ghost to locate and recover files using Google's Desktop Search feature. Another new feature is online backup-your backup copy can be stored on an offsite server via FTP. To reduce the size of the backup for faster transfers, Ghost only takes backups of modified files. The application performed the routine task of backing up very well. In our test, Ghost created a backup of a 127 GB system partition (44 GB occupied) in just 24 minutes. We compared that with another backup utility, Acronis True Image, which required a bit more time to complete the same task.

However, we were disappointed that Ghost didn't perform as well in the file backup test. The process of creating a backup for a 20 GB folder, took Ghost twice as long as True Image. In the case of size and restoration of backups, both programs performed equally well. The clinching factor was that in case of an emergency one can recover data with the bootable Ghost CD. Moreover, the application tipped the scales in user friendliness. It automatically detects external hard disks that can be used as the backup image destination.

Verdict With useful new functions, good performance and user-friendly interface, it is worth it to switch to Ghost 14.0. FOR: Solid system backup.
AGAINST: System crashed during a routine program update. Slow backup.