Ghost 14 Runs One Time and Never Runs Again Until Reinstall

Out of the box, I'm going to vent and say that Symantec's Chat/Telephone Support is useless.  I brought this problem to them and their only solution was to uninstall/reinstall.  Been there, done that.  Sorry, had to vent.

 

Here's the problem:

 

  • The History
    • Running Norton Ghost 14 on a Windows Vista Ultimate Machine.
    • When first purchased, it "seemed" to install and work flawlessly.  Backups were run every night.  Didn't seem to have too many problems (if any).
    • One day, it stopped working.  Apparently some MS update crashed it but I'm not 100% certain of that.  Something to do with .NET
    • Uninstalled / Reinstalled but got errors on the reinstall.
    • After much hassle with Norton Tech Support, they got me the "latest" version 14.05 and it installed.
  •  The Current Problem
    • After installing 14.05, the backup seemed to work.  Took 3 hours but it completed.  (Whether it's a good backup or not has yet to be determined)
    • The next day - It will not work.  It will either sit at 1% or 5% (in the Progress & Performance Window)
    • Rebooting will not resolve the problem.
    • The only solution is to uninstall / reinstall the application which really is a problem if you want to schedule backups.


Our dear friends at Symantec Tech Support wanted to "turn on and turn off services" which I allowed them to do and it actually had matters worse.  One particular tech ran a batch file in the Ghost Folder called "FixInstall.bat" and it came back with a "Catostrophic Failure".  He then tried to insinuate that it was fixed.

 

I would dump Ghost 14 in favor of Ghost 15 but I fear the same problems again.  Which then might lead me to consider another disk-cloning app.  

 

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I am fast learning that this forum is more valuable then the so-called support provided by Symantec.  They seem to only know how to install/reinstall and move you to a supervisor that does the same thing.  Sorry !  Venting again.

 

Thank you in advance for any info you might provide.

 

Louis James