Norton 360 vs Norton Ghost ?

macmanboomer · ‎10-15-2008

I currently have Norton Internet Security subscription till August 2009. Is Ghost a subscription or one time purchase? Which should I do, upgrade to Norton 360 or purchase Ghost? I'm needing good backup & restore functions so what's the differences in the two? Thanks for any help anyone can give.

scott_moen · ‎06-23-2008

The N360 backup solution offers the ability to back up files by location or file type to either a local media or to Secure Online Storage. This type of backup is ideal for protecting your important documents and files. N360 backup is designed to run in the background and be as unintrusive as possible. "Set it and forget it."

I don't personally use Ghost but the quick explanation as I understand it is that Ghost is designed to do a complete system backup and restore. If for some reason your system has a catastrophic failure, you can load Ghost (prior to loading your OS) and have it reset your system to a preset configuration.

Ghost also supports file and folder backups so I don't think you really get anything less by using Ghost over N360. N360 is an all in one solution for security, pc tune up, and backup. Ghost is a dedicated backup application.

Hope that helps a bit.

~scott

Tech0utsider · ‎07-29-2008

macmanboomer wrote:
I currently have Norton Internet Security subscription till August 2009. Is Ghost a subscription or one time purchase? Which should I do, upgrade to Norton 360 or purchase Ghost? I'm needing good backup & restore functions so what's the differences in the two? Thanks for any help anyone can give.

I believe that it is a one-time purchase. I am not sure about eligebility for product year upgrades, eg. 14.0 ==>15.0

Ghost is more of a comprehensive backup tool than N360. Ghost can image your hard drive and bring it back to its original state if needed. N360 however, only saves files and certain settings, such as internet favorites. However, you do have to option in N360 to add certain files to the backup.

I believe that you should stick to N360 because it is enough for the home user. Also, Ghost does not include any antivirus capibilities, making the need for restores often, eg malware attacks boot record and computer cannot boot.

=\

znmng · ‎08-25-2008

No. Norton Ghost is not a subscription. It is a one time purchase. If you need good backup & restore functions , i suggest you use Norton Ghost. All the function of the product is here. In the same time, i suggest you to continue you NIS subscription to protect your computer from virus infections. Norton 360 does not have Full system backup function (disk image) which Backs up everything on a hard drive or partition. You may download a Norton 360 trial here and a Norton Ghost trial here.

macmanboomer · ‎10-15-2008

Thanks for the replies. I decided to go with Ghost mainly because of the full disk image capabilities.

BluePhoton · ‎02-01-2009

OK, I am confused.

Basically you said:

"Ghost is designed to do a complete system backup and restore." Whereas (if I understand correctly) 360 can do only simple backups (copies) of normal stuff, but not designed to recover OS / programs / profiles, etc.

Why I am confused is that the Norton site compares Ghost 14 and N360 V2, and basically states that 360 V2 does everything that Ghost 14.0 does + all the other stuff.

see following link: http://shop.symantecstore.com/store/symnahho/en_US/ContentTheme/pbPage.compareBackupRestore/ThemeID....

According to this N360 offers (and I quote):

Backs up automatically on events and schedules (Same as Ghost)
Full system and file back up using disk imaging (Same as Ghost)
Restores from system failures and recovers everything on your PC (Same as Ghost)
Free email and chat support* (Same as Ghost)

By the way, this same comparison chart indicates that Norton Save and Restore V2.0 has exacly the same above described features as Ghost 14.0, but is $20 cheaper!

I am using 360 V2, and I am wondering if I should re-install Norton Ghost 10.0 - I normally would like to make sure I have a complete disk image in case of catastrophic failure, but it is not yet clear to me if I need Ghost (10 or 14), or if I can rely solely on 360. According to Norton marketing, it would be the latter, but according to this forum it would be the former.

Like I said, I am confused!!!

BluePhoton

mark_kanok · ‎05-19-2008

Good catch. Our online store team will be updating that comparison chart soon.

pmcmanus · ‎02-15-2009

Hi Mark,

I am also confused. I had NIS and Ghost 10.0 but recently upgraded my NIS to 360 as I thought I could have an all in one program for internet security and back-ups. Are you saying I only needed to renew NIS and keep Ghost or are there other benefits to 360 over NIS above what Ghost 10.0 can offer and I am better keeping 360 and Ghost and just not using the backup feature on 360?

Pete

mumford68 · ‎02-01-2009

Hi znmng, I am replying to your message because I have a couple of questions and your comment has the link that I am referrencing these questions to. Thank you for your post by the way, it helps making comparisons between 360 and Ghost a bit easier to understand!

A partial description in the info. contained in the link "All the function of the product is here":

Key Technologies

Creates full system and file backups
Restores from system failures
Saves recovery points to offsite locations
Symantec ThreatCon integration*

Features

Full system backup (disk image)—Backs up everything on a hard drive or partition.
File and folder backup—Backs up only the specific files and folders you choose rather than saving an entire drive.
FTP backup—Copies recovery points to a FTP site for easier offsite backup management. NEW
Offsite backup—backs up your files to NAS (Network-Attached Storage) devices. NEW

My questions are simply:

Full system backup - Would I be able to take a disk image of a 160Gig drive and put it on a 21Gig drive (probably no, right? :))

Offsite backup - This would be for storage devices that are connected to the computer or network of the user, correct? (I would assume yes). Not to a Symantec/Norton offsite location? (I would assume no).

As always, Thank you much for your time.

mumford68 · ‎02-01-2009

Oh, and as Techoutisider eludes to, basically what version you buy is what you are going to have indefinately unless you wish to upgrade? That is my understanding as it currently stands.