Ghost (software) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.

org/wiki/Ghost_(software)

Ghost (software)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ghost is a disk cloning program product sold by Ghost

Symantec. Originally developed by Murray Haszard in
1995 for Binary Research, the technology was acquired in
1998 by Symantec. The name Ghost originated as an
acronym for "General Hardware-Oriented System
Transfer".[2]

Contents
Symantec's Norton Ghost v.15 home screen
1 History
1.1 PowerQuest Original author(s) Symantec
1.2 Phantom Developer(s) Symantec
2 Backup software Initial release before 1997
3 Filesystems
4 Version history Stable release 15.0.1.36526 (01APR10) [1]
4.1 Ghost 3.1
Development status current
4.2 Ghost 4.0 and 4.1
4.3 Ghost 5.0 Available in English
4.4 Ghost for NetWare
Type disk cloning
4.5 Ghost 6.0 (Ghost 2001)
4.6 Ghost 7.0 / Ghost 2002 License Commercial proprietary
4.7 Ghost 7.5
Website http://www.ghost.com
4.8 Ghost 8.0
4.9 Norton Ghost 2003
4.10 Ghost Solution Suite 1.0 (AKA Ghost
8.2)
4.11 Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 (Ghost 8.3)
4.12 Ghost 9.0 (includes Ghost 2003)
4.13 Ghost 10.0
4.14 Norton Save And Restore 1.0 (Ghost
10.0)
4.15 Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (Ghost 11.0)
4.16 Ghost 12.0
4.17 Norton Save & Restore 2.0 (Ghost
13.0)
4.18 Norton Ghost 14.0
4.19 Ghost Solution Suite 2.5
4.20 Norton Ghost 15.0
5 Transition away from DOS
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

History

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Binary Research developed Ghost in Auckland, New Zealand. After

the Symantec acquisition, a few functions (such as translation into
other languages) were moved elsewhere, but the main development
remained in Auckland until October 2009 at which time much was
moved to India.[citation needed]

Technologies developed by 20/20 Software were integrated into

Ghost after their acquisition by Symantec in April 2000.[3]

PowerQuest

At the end of 2003, Symantec acquired its largest competition, The main Task page from Norton
PowerQuest. On August 2, 2004, Norton Ghost 9.0 was released as a Ghost v14.
new consumer version of Ghost, which was based on PowerQuest's
Drive Image version 7, and provided Live imaging of a Windows
system. Ghost 9 continued to leverage the PowerQuest file format,
meaning it wasn't backward compatible with previous versions of
Ghost. However, a version of Ghost 8.0 was included on the Ghost 9
recovery disk to support existing Ghost customers.

Phantom

The internal project name Phantom designated a complete rewrite of

the Ghost cloning engine at Symantec in Auckland. The Phantom
project ran for about three years in parallel with the ongoing
development of the Ghost code. Some parts of the Phantom code, Additional Tools in Norton Ghost
such as the ability to write to NTFS filesystems from MS-DOS, got v14.
folded into the main Ghost product. Symantec released a prototype
of Phantom as Ghost for Manufacturing in 2003.

Backup software
Although disk cloning programs are not primarily backup programs, they are sometimes used as such. A key
feature of a backup program is to allow the retrieval of individual files without needing to restore the entire
backup. Disk cloning programs either provide a Windows Explorer-like program to browse image files and
extract individual files from them, or allow an image file to be mounted as a read-only filesystem within
Windows Explorer.

Ghost is marketed as a backup program. It comes with an ISO file that needs to be written to a CD. This
provides a recovery environment to perform a full system recovery. There's also provision to mount a drive
& select backed-up files from that drive and recover them to the primary hard disk.

Ghost can copy the contents of one hard drive to another and can convert a hard drive's contents to a virtual
disk format such as VMware's VMDK file.

Filesystems
Initially, Ghost supported only FAT filesystems directly, but it could also copy (although not resize) other
filesystems by performing a sector copy. Ghost added support for the NTFS filesystem later in 1996, and
also provided a program, Ghostwalker (DOS name: ghstwalk.exe), to change the Security ID (SID) that
made Windows NT systems distinguishable from each other. Ghostwalker is also capable of modifying the
name of the Windows NT-based computer from its own interface. Ghost added support for the ext2

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filesystem in 1999 and for ext3 subsequently.

Version history
Ghost 3.1

The first versions of Ghost supported only the cloning of entire disks, however version 3.1 in 1997 allowed
the cloning of individual partitions. Ghost could clone a disk or partition to another disk or partition or to an
image file. Ghost allowed 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 allows 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 allowed a user to browse the contents of an image file and extract
individual files from it. Explorer was subsequently enhanced to allow users to add and delete files on FAT,
later on ext2, ext3 and NTFS filesystems in an image. Until 2007, Ghost Explorer could extract files from
NTFS images but not edit NTFS images. Ghost Explorer could work with images from older versions but
only slowly; version 4 images contained indexes to find files rapidly. Version 4.0 also moved from real-mode
DOS to 286 protected-mode. The additional memory available allowed Ghost to provide several levels of
compression for images, and to provide the file browser. In 1998, Ghost 4.1 allowed for password-protected
images.

Ghost 5.0

Version 5.0 moved to 386 protected mode. Unlike the character-based user interface of earlier versions, 5.0
used a GUI. The Binary Research logo, two stars revolving around each other, played on the main screen
while the program idled. 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

There was also a Norton Ghost version (called 2.0) for Novell NetWare around 1999, with supported NSS
partitions (although it ran in DOS, like the others).

Ghost 6.0 (Ghost 2001)

Ghost 6.0 included a Console application in 2000 to simplify the management of large numbers of machines.
The Console communicates with client software on managed computers to allow a system administrator to
refresh the disk of a machine remotely.

As a DOS-based program, Ghost required machines running Windows to reboot to a DOS environment to
run it. Ghost 6.0 required a separate DOS partition when used with the Console.

Ghost 7.0 / Ghost 2002

Released March 31, 2001 Norton Ghost version 7.0 (retail) was marketed as Norton Ghost 2002 Personal
Edition. Help|About reveals version 7.00.

Ghost 7.5

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Released December 14, 2001

Ghost 7.5 in 2002 created a 'Virtual Partition' instead - a DOS partition which actually exists as a file within
a normal Windows filesystem. This significantly eased systems management because the user no longer had
to set up their own partition tables. Ghost 7.5 could also write images to CD-R drives, and later versions can
also write DVDs.

Ghost 8.0

Ghost 8.0 includes a standalone executable (filename: ghost32.exe) that runs directly from Windows,
without the need to reboot. It is very 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 also
allows an image to be saved on, or read from, an NTFS filesystem, although NTFS is not normally 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 (third-party CD
burning software can be used to create a bootable Ghost CD based on a bootable Ghost diskette). The
machine still needs to reboot to the Virtual Partition, but the user doesn't need to interact with DOS.
Symantec deprecated LiveUpdate support for Norton Ghost 2003 in early 2006. Two Symantec knowledge
base articles (Updates to Norton Ghost 2003 (http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/docid
/2002102509582825) How to obtain the programs updates that are archived on Symantec LiveUpdate server
(http://service1.symantec.com/Support/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2007010219171513) ) provide step-by-step
instructions detailing how to obtain Norton Ghost 2003 updates from the LiveUpdate Archive. As of April
24, 2008, the latest version available from the archive is 2003.793. Older versions of Norton Ghost 2003 can
be also updated from a system with a newer version of Norton Ghost 2003 by copying program directory
from newer to older. Reliable support for SATA drives was also provided in 2003.793.

Ghost Solution Suite 1.0 (AKA Ghost 8.2)

In 2004, Symantec renamed the Enterprise version of Ghost to

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite 1.0. This helped to clarify the
difference between the consumer and business lines of the product.
This was further defined in February 2006, with the Release of
Norton Save And Restore (some packages are labelled Norton
Backup And Restore), a standalone backup application based on
Ghost 10.0.

Released November 15, 2004

Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 (Ghost 8.3) Symantec Ghost 8.2

Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 was released December 2005. Some of the new features include the ability to create
an image file that is larger than 2 GB (in Ghost 8.2 or earlier versions, such image files are automatically split
into two or more segments, so that each segment has a maximum size of 2 GB), more comprehensive
manufacturing tools, and the ability to create a universal boot disk. Ghost Solution Suite is a bundle of an
updated version of Ghost, Symantec Client Migration (a user data and settings migration tool) and the former
PowerQuest equivalent, DeployCenter (using PQI images).

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Ghost 9.0 (includes Ghost 2003)

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.
The main product is a Windows-based application that must be
installed on the target system.
Images of the system can be made while Windows is running,
rather than only when booted directly into DOS-mode Ghost. A screen shot of Norton Ghost 9.0
Incremental images (containing only changes since the last as seen in Windows 2000
image) are supported.
The Windows application 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 the DriveImage-based Ghost 9 did not support the older .gho format disk images, a separate CD
containing Ghost 2003 was 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 (like making
images from the bootable Ghost environment, no installation required, and no product activation).

Ghost 10.0

Supported media CDR/RW and DVD+-R/RW drives, USB and FireWire (IEEE 1394) devices, and Iomega
Zip and Jaz drives. Enables the encryption of backups and support for Maxtor external drives with Maxtor
OneTouch buttons. The Ghost version 10.0 are compatible with previous revisions, but not with future
revisions.

Norton Save And Restore 1.0 (Ghost 10.0)

Norton Save And Restore 1.0, released February 2006, was the renamed consumer version of Ghost. The
system utilized Ghost 10.0's engine, with the addition of features to allow backup and restoration of
individual files.

Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (Ghost 11.0)

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 (GPT)-based disks (although the software does not yet
fully support systems with Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)-compliant firmware). Running Live Update
from Ghost Explorer will update Ghost to 11.0.2.1573.

Ghost 12.0

Ghost 12.0 includes Windows Vista support with an updated and more thorough user interface. It allows for
a full system backup & one where individual files or folders can be selected & backed up.

This version also provides a "LightsOut Restore" feature. This restores a system with an on-disk software

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recovery environment, thereby allowing a recovery without a bootable CD. Upon boot-up of the computer a
screen will ask which drive to boot from, the regular drive, or the LightsOut restore virtual drive.

LightsOut restore augments the ISO disk, which comes with the Ghost program, that has to be copied to a
CD. This contains a recovery environment that allows one to recover files even if Windows doesn't start up,
but the computer can turn on. The latest update to the program is 12.0.5.29804.

Norton Save & Restore 2.0 (Ghost 13.0)

NSR 2.0 has fewer features when compared 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 also supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Vista.

Norton Ghost 14.0

Version 14.0 preserves the features of version 12.0, with the ability to
make full Volume Snapshot Service (VSS) backups and the option to
make remote backups to an FTP site as another storage option. Ghost
also leverages data from ThreatCon, which monitors malware activity
around the world, and performs incremental backups when a specific
threat level is reached. However, this functions only when connected
to the Internet, so it will not resist any local attack.

Other features include the ability to back up to Network-attached

storage devices and support of NTFS partitions up to 16TB. Ghost
can manage other installations of version 12.0 or later across a The window where you can set
network. Version 14 supports XP and Vista. The latest version is Norton Ghost to automatically back
14.0.5.34587. This version no longer supports opening of older up a drive based upon the level of
version .gho image files. Rather, it stores images in .v2i format. Older global computer based threats, as
.gho image files can be restored using Ghost Explorer, a separate judged by Symantec's ThreatCon
utility. grading system.

Ghost Solution Suite 2.5

This is the current version of the enterprise software, and includes Ghost 11.5. It was released in May
2008.[4] New features include DeployAnywhere, Hot Imaging, logical volume support, additional image
formats, and new PreOS (boot disk) operating systems.[5] As of January 6, 2010, the latest build from Live
Update is 11.5.1.2266 (Live Update 5 (LU5)). [6] This update provides support for Windows 7 and 2008 R2.

Improved support for virtual formats

New Features Description

Allows drivers to be injected during image deployment to lessen the need
DeployAnywhere
for hardware dependent images.
Allows live machines to be used as the source to keep images from
Hot Imaging
becoming stale and out of date.

Image Formats VMware disk image (VMDK)

Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery (BESR)

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PowerQuest image (PQi).

PreOS (boot disk) operating 32-bit Windows PE with greatly enhanced driver set
systems Linux (based on Thinstation)

Norton Ghost 15.0

Ghost was updated in November 2009 to v15.0.0.35659. According to the manual (ftp://ftp.symantec.com
/public/english_us_canada/products/ghost/15/manuals/ngh_15_user_guide.pdf) on Symantec's site, the
following features are available in Ghost 15: -

New Features Description

Norton Ghost now includes support for the following virtual platforms:
Improved support for
virtual formats VMware ESX 3.5i and 4.0i
VMware ESX 3.5 and 4.0

Norton Ghost now includes support for the following platforms:

Improved platform Windows 7

support Windows Vista with SP2 (includes Home Basic, Home Premium, Business-
Retail, and Ultimate)
BitLocker-encrypted volume support

Create recovery You can now create independent recovery points using the new Back Up My
points from within Computer feature in Symantec Recovery Disk. Sometimes known as a cold
Symantec Recovery backup or offline backup, you can create recovery points of a partition without
Disk the need to install Norton Ghost or its Agent.
Convert recovery
You can now create schedules to convert recovery points to VMware Virtual
points to virtual disks
Disk and Microsoft Virtual Disks, or directly to a VMware ESX 3.5 server.
using a schedule
Support for Microsoft You can now convert recovery points to Hyper-V format and also import
Hyper-V recovery points to a Hyper-V server.
Support for Blu-ray Back up your computer directly to Blu-ray, DVD, or CD. Or, you can copy
disc media recovery points to Blu-ray, DVD, or CD.
If you choose to delay installation of the product license, all features will not be
30-day trial enabled during the 30-day trial period. The 30-day trial period begins when you
do a particular task.

On the 1st of April 2010 an updated version of Norton Ghost 15 was released. The current version is
15.0.1.36526.

Transition away 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.

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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.

Eventually Ghost was rewritten as Ghost32.exe, a 32-bit version capable of running with the Windows
Preboot Environment (WinPE), which is a stripped down version of Windows originally used by product
manufacturers to set up new computers. Because WinPE was based on the modern 32-bit Windows, it could
use the same plug and play hardware drivers as a standard desktop computer, making hardware support for
Ghost much simpler.

Disk imaging competitors to Ghost have dealt with the decline of DOS by moving to Linux based preboot
environments, where they can draw on the driver development for the Linux kernel to be able to image
newer models of disk controllers.

See also
Disk cloning
List of disk cloning software

References
1. ^ http://community.norton.com/norton/board/message?board.id=other&thread.id=16189
2. ^ "Radified Guide to Norton Ghost" (http://ghost.radified.com/ghost_1b.htm) . http://ghost.radified.com
/ghost_1b.htm. Retrieved 2008-06-11.
3. ^ "Acquisitions" (http://www.symantec.com/about/profile/development/acquisitions/index.jsp) . Symantec.
http://www.symantec.com/about/profile/development/acquisitions/index.jsp. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
4. ^ "Brief overview of Symantec Ghost and Norton Ghost versions" (https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board
/message?board.id=109&thread.id=11343) . 5 May 2008. https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board
/message?board.id=109&thread.id=11343.
5. ^ "Ghost Solution Suite" (http://www.symantec.com/business/products
/newfeatures.jsp?pcid=pcat_infrastruct_op&pvid=865_1) . Symantec. http://www.symantec.com/business
/products/newfeatures.jsp?pcid=pcat_infrastruct_op&pvid=865_1. Retrieved 2008-10-16.
6. ^ "LiveUpdate for GSS 2.5.1" (http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/gss-251-now-available-live-update-
support-win7-and-2k8-r2) . http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/gss-251-now-available-live-update-
support-win7-and-2k8-r2.

External links
Norton Ghost - Enterprise Edition product page (http://www.symantec.com/Products
/enterprise?c=prodinfo&refId=865&cid=1025)
Radified tutorials and pages on Ghost (http://ghost.radified.com/)
Softpanorama Norton Ghost Page (http://www.softpanorama.org/Windows/norton_ghost.shtml)
Brief overview of Symantec Ghost and Norton Ghost versions (https://forums.symantec.com/syment
/board/message?board.id=109&thread.id=11343)
Binary Research Ghost Version History (https://downloads.binaryresearch.net/asp/sghistory.asp)
Symantec News (http://www.symantec.com/about/news/release/index.jsp)
Symantec Ghost Release Details (http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/support

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/release_details.jsp?pid=52020) (Dates seems somewhat questionable based on press releases)

Symantec Ghost Solution Suite Release Details (http://www.symantec.com/enterprise/support
/release_details.jsp?pid=52023) (Dates seem somewhat questionable based on press releases)
Manual for how to use Ghost Solution Suite (GSS) (http://www.ictmanuaali.net/ghost-solution-suite-
gss-eng)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_(software)"
Categories: Symantec software | Proprietary software | Backup software | Storage software | Disk cloning

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