Ghost 16

Is Ghost ever going to be replaced/ updated?

 

thanks

Hi,

 

at the moment there's unfortunately no info about when the next Ghost version will be released.

If any new version will come, an announcement will be made here as well.

Thanks for the answer.

Is Ghost ever going to be replaced/ updated?

 

thanks

A better user interface for example.


redk9258 wrote:

What features are you looking for that Ghost 15 don't have?


Ghost 15's SRD (boot CD) didn't 'see' my 3TB GPT hard drives.

If I remember rightly Ghost 15 has been out over two years now probably nearer three and things have moved on, 1 TB was about the norm then, but having said that I don't use massive drives, better with a few small ones that one big one, if you see what I mean.

So yes G15 is overdue for a revamp, the sooner the better.

 

Deric.

I wonder about SSD drives also.

I don't know because I don't use them, if you do try SSDs install Ghost and ignore the warning and install anyway.

 

Deric

Another new item:

 

an automatic winpe builder.

 

It can be done as I am beta testing such a product.

What product has an automatic Win PE builder? Do you mean to add things to the Recovery Environment like a portable web browser so you can get online to get help when your PC won't run? I have done this myself. It's not real hard but automatic would be great!

 

1.PNG

I can't tell you about the progam that is in beta testing right now but works and creates WinPe. Another program is https://www.paragon-software.com/my-account/winpe/overview.htm which I haven't used.

Sorry

Coyote2 - Ghost 15 has limited support for GPT data partitions. Is the partition simply not seen from the recovery disk?

On two different computers, a 3TB (single partition) GPT hard drive (by Hitachi) was simply not seen when booting from the recovery disc.  (I got rid of the hard drive since then.)

A few things I'd love to see that would definitely make me upgrade (in priority order):

 

  1. Restore to dissimilar hardware. Yes, I know BESR does this, but in my opinion this should be a consumer level feature. It is found in the consumer level versions of Ghost's competitors.
  2. Ability to introduce differential backups into the backup scheme. So, for instance, you could run a full back each quarter, a differential backup (generated by comparing current file system to this base) each month, and then run incrementals that build on the differential backups. Again, at least two of Ghost's competitors have this capability and it enables longer backup history for the any given amount of available backup storage.
  3. More flexible backup scheme retention options. For instance, the ability to specify the number of days for which I want to keep intra-daily incrementals vs. just having Ghost decide to consolidate them on a daily basis.
  4. Better network imaging performance.

On the plus side, I really like the reliability of Ghost images and the flexible off-site system. I'm not aware of another product which offers such a solid built-in off-site rotation scheme. The UI doesn't really bother me. Although the restore interface (especially bare metal restore) on the SRD could use improvement, it seems perfectly functional.

 

One other thing for an update: did that bug where people where told to insert the recovery disk when trying to recover in the G15 SRD ever get fixed?

 

Philip.


philipm785 wrote:

A few things I'd love to see that would definitely make me upgrade (in priority order):

 

  1. Restore to dissimilar hardware. Yes, I know BESR does this, but in my opinion this should be a consumer level feature. It is found in the consumer level versions of Ghost's competitors.
  2. Ability to introduce differential backups into the backup scheme. So, for instance, you could run a full back each quarter, a differential backup (generated by comparing current file system to this base) each month, and then run incrementals that build on the differential backups. Again, at least two of Ghost's competitors have this capability and it enables longer backup history for the any given amount of available backup storage.
  3. More flexible backup scheme retention options. For instance, the ability to specify the number of days for which I want to keep intra-daily incrementals vs. just having Ghost decide to consolidate them on a daily basis.
  4. Better network imaging performance.

On the plus side, I really like the reliability of Ghost images and the flexible off-site system. I'm not aware of another product which offers such a solid built-in off-site rotation scheme. The UI doesn't really bother me. Although the restore interface (especially bare metal restore) on the SRD could use improvement, it seems perfectly functional.

 

One other thing for an update: did that bug where people where told to insert the recovery disk when trying to recover in the G15 SRD ever get fixed?

 

Philip.


1.  Does this mean that competitors can restore a SYSTEM drive image to a different computer's system drive?  (To do that, I guess a competitor's boot CD would need to have all the hardware drivers the different computer's OS needed.  And I guess the intent would be to switch one's Windows license from one computer to the other.)

 

2.  I don't understand what a differential backup is; it sounds a bit like "reconciling" against a base backup (but that takes nearly as long as creating one, doesn't it?).

1.  Does this mean that competitors can restore a SYSTEM drive image to a different computer's system drive?  (To do that, I guess a competitor's boot CD would need to have all the hardware drivers the different computer's OS needed.  And I guess the intent would be to switch one's Windows license from one computer to the other.)

 

2.  I don't understand what a differential backup is; it sounds a bit like "reconciling" against a base backup (but that takes nearly as long as creating one, doesn't it?).


 

1. Yes - that's right. Some call it "Hardware Independant Restore". Essentially it strips out the drivers after restoration and loads in default Windows drivers. The better implementations allow you to add drivers to a folder that can be accessed during the restore process in case you have unusual RAID drivers, etc. When you boot a machine that's been restored this way, it goes through and rediscovers hardware too.

 

2. You're correct. It takes about as long (or slightly longer) than a full backup, but is much smaller because it saves only those sectors which have changed since the full backup. It's a bit like collapsing all incrementals into one, except that this method increases reliability of the chain because the differential actually compares the data vs. relying on the accuracy of the block level change driver.

 

 

philpm785,

 

I would also like to see these features added. Syamantec REALLY needs to allow Restore Anywhere to keep up with the competition.

I agree about restore anywhere.  Symantec has become the only consumer imaging program that does not have it, as far as I know.  One product even lets you use the drivers on the recovery disk, if the recovery disk can access the hard drive you can inject that driver into the operating system and after the system boots it's an easy task to update them.

 

I also want the ability to make a non-scheduled incremental (it would be the same as a differential).

One product lets you select an already created base image to make a differential, even from the recovery disk doing a cold image.

 

I would also like to see a tool for basic partitioning on the recovery disk, even just a GUI for diskpart or something like disk management.

Then looking at most of the common problems we see here, a tool to clear the disk signature, windows 7 bootsect.exe, and a way to run a windows 7 startup repair would be nice.

 

Add a better explorer with easy to use copy/paste features would allow people to recover data off a non-booting or infected system and having a version of portable firefox like another product would let people go online to recieve help here if that is there only system.

 

Symantec could easily become the first and only imaging solution if they added all the important features that people have been asking for over the years.

 

Dave

 

Edit- I forgot a couple.

An easy to use offline regedit, offline system restore, and be able to rollback windows updates.

(again, look at some of the other products)

Dave,

 

I wish I could give you 5 Kudos for your suggestions. I agree 100%. Especially a decent GUI for DiskPart or similar partitioning tool. At least a nice GUI with sliders for adjusting partitions before doing a restore. A disk signature clear tool would be great too.