This is a rant and request post - hope it doesn't get erased, but I'll be as professional and honest as I can be and while I believe the limitations I speak to are factual, this is my opinion.
First, I have been using Ghost for 10 years. I had been using Ghost 2003 (boot disks) to clone all of my pre XP, XP,Vista, and Windows 7 installations for the purposes of a full clone of the hard drive for backup protection of the various environments. I had previously used the clone to image option way back when until one time, the image became corrupt and it caused me grief when I needed it. I also had an issue using CD/DVDs to clone backups of my drives as it became wasteful and with the increase in drive sizes, ran the risk of ruining the whole set of DVDs if the operation should fail (happened in one case where it crashed during the operation of 13 DVDs - crashed on #10 I think it was). I like taking full clones of the physical drive to another hard drive because it's quick, easily reusable, and because in an outage and emergency situation, I can be back up and running in 10 mins or less. Ghost 2003 has started having problems working with drives greater than 1TB (especially when I was cloning from a drive < 1TB to a drive > 1TB. So, I broke down and started using all the Ghost 15 licenses I bought (knew or at least thought I would use them soon, so I purchased them in advance). I had been using them onVista32bit single partition/drive installs with a bit of rework involved to resolve issues post backup (boot configuration). Every time I used it and checked the backup, I had to load theVistarepair console and repair the boot configuration before the clone would work - a bit of a pain, and extra step for a product purchased, but hey, it was Ghost - I liked Ghost and I could live with it.
Now, enter a W7 64bit Ultimate edition install with the C partition and SRP partition all on one drive. Ghost provides no simple way to just copy the physical drive. You can only copy partitions from one drive to another. If by some miracle you successfully clone the SRP and C: partition (the whole physical drive) to another drive using Ghost 15, you will still have to spend time fixing the boot records and configuration. Norton's community points to references and instructions for using BING and PTEDIT to resolve these issues. One upset member felt that it was ridiculous to buy a product, only to have to go out and get other products (cost involved or not) to accomplish what Ghost should be doing already. I know I don't get paid if I don't do all of my job. Brian_K user on the forums listed as a forum guru states in a message regarding this issue (or at least a similar issue/concern): "Unless I'm mistaken, Ghost 15 can't do drive to drive clones. It does partition clones. (Ghost calls partitions, drives. Which is confusing)." That's funny, because the Copy My Hard Drive function (Ghost > Tools > Copy My Hard Drive) implies it copies your hard drive, not your just your partition. It's description states that it copies "All existing files, programs and settings" from one hard drive to another which in my opinion is only a half truth and is somewhat misleading. It copies only the partition, not all files on the physical drive. This is what creates problems when trying to clone a drive to another drive with multiple partitions because you can only use Copy My Hard Drive to copy one partition at a time.
The forums have suggested that if you take an image backup or Recovery Point, it will backup the whole drive, then you can come back in and restore it to your new drive. From a usability and efficiency standpoint, it would be better if you just brought back a cloning option or solution to accomplish this work that right now requires increased user interaction for what should be a simple stand alone operation. Using this forum recommendation, I see the easiest way to implement it, is to have three hard drives. Your source (old hard drive), your target (new hard drive), and a sufficiently sized spare drive to put the images on from the source which you will later use to restore to your target. In my opinion, that's a waste of time, electricity, and resources.
After searching the Internet further, I discovered that as a Western Digital owner, I am entitled to use a free piece of software downloadable from Western Digital. It's been 10+ years since I looked at another solution (Seagate/Veritas Backup Exec and Colorado Backup were the ones I used before Ghost), but I did so. I regret to inform Symantec, that the other product available through WD for free, was sensationally simple, quick, and did exactly what your old product did, and your new product fails to - it cloned a multi-partitioned drive from one to another - no middle hard drive needed for excess operations and imaging, no sitting in front of the machine and checking off special boxes, no need to redo the boot configurations or load the Windows Vista or 7 repair console, and I didn't even need to read instructions - just fire it off and go. I hope this helps other users, who like myself, tried to make Ghost 15 work after being comfortable with previous versions of Ghost which did exactly what I needed it to do only to find out that Ghost 15 does not provide a real physical hard drive multi-partition clone operation.
Now, the request. If my needs change, and I decide to try image backups once more, I might consider using Ghost again. But the only way Ghost will become my product of choice right now is if they bring back the functionality to clone my physical hard drive (not just partitions, but the whole thing). Allowing me to clone cold from the CD/DVD without Windows would be a BIG bonus, but right now, I'll settle for cloning in or out of Windows. Please bring back that functionality to the Ghost product. Maybe SP2 update for Ghost 15 perhaps would be nice considering all of the now useless Ghost 15 licenses I have. I can't be the only person having this problem.
Thank you.
db