Ghost (disk utility)
Ghost is a disk cloning program, originally produced by Binary Research, but purchased by Symantec on June 24 1998. The Ghost program launched the market for disk-cloning software. The name Ghost originated as an acronym for "General Hardware-Oriented System Transfer".
Murray Haszard wrote Ghost in 1996, building on experience with a parallel and serial file-copying program previously produced by Binary Research. 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 filesystem in 1999 and for ext3 subsequently.
Binary Research developed Ghost in Auckland, New Zealand and, although a few functions (such as translation into other languages) now take place elsewhere, the main development and quality assurance remains in Auckland.
Ghost Versions
Ghost 3.1
The first versions of Ghost supported only the cloning of entire disks, but version 3.1 in 1997 allowed the cloning of individual partitions as well. Ghost could clone a disk or partition to another disk or partition, or to an image file, restorable either to another machine or the same machine later. Ghost allowed for writing a clone or image:
- to a second disk in the same machine
- to another machine linked by a parallel or network cable
- to a network drive
- to a tape drive
Ghost 4.0
Version 4.0 of Ghost added multicast technology (following the lead of a competitor, ImageCast). Multicasting allows sending a single image simultaneously to many 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 (and 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.
Ghost 4.1
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.
Gdisk, a scriptable partition manager, joined the growing suite of Ghost programs in 1998. Gdisk serves a role similar to Fdisk, but has greater capabilities.
Ghost 6.0
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 7.5 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. Ghost 7.5 could also write images to CD-R drives, and later versions can also write DVDs.
Ghost 7.0
Ghost 7.5
Released December 11 2001
Ghost 8.0
Ghost 8.0 includes a standalone executable (DOS name: 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.
There was also a Norton Ghost version (called 2.0) for Novell NetWare, with supported NSS partitions (although it ran in DOS, like the others).
Ghost 2003
Ghost 2003, a simpler,non-corporate version of Ghost, does not include the Console but has a Windows front-end to script Ghost operations. The machine still needs to reboot to the Virtual Partition, but the user doesn't need to interact with DOS. Symantec discontinued live update support for this product in early 2006. Latest version is believed to be 2003.793 Reliable support for SATA drives was also provided in 2003.793. Older versions can be updated from a system with newer version by copying program directory from newer to older.
Ghost Solution Suite 1.0 (AKA Ghost 8.2)
In 2004, Symantec renamed the Enterprise version of Ghost as 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. In the future, the Ghost name will only be used for the business product.
Released November 15 2004
Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 (AKA Ghost 8.3)
Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 was released December 2005. Some of the new features includes multi-terabyte support, 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).
Ghost 9.0 (includes Ghost 2003)
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 support for Maxtor external drives with Maxtor OneTouch™ buttons.
Norton Save And Restore™ 1.0 (Ghost 10.0 plus file backup and restore)
Norton Save And Restore™ 1.0, released February 2006, is the renamed consumer version of the product. This is essentially an enhancement of Ghost 10.0, with the addition of features to allow backup and restoration of individual files.
Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (AKA 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).
Ghost 12.0
Ghost 12.0 offers remote management and lights out restore, and is a consumer version.
Automatic Updates
Ghost uses an online update feature so the software you end up with is a combination of what you get on a CD and what you download. This is good in that you get bug fixes but bad in that you rent the software rather than own it. For example Symantec no longer issues updates for Ghost 2003 so that you can't reinstall Ghost 2003 and get the bug fixes which make firewire and USB backup work.
Release history
| Binary Research version | Date |
|---|---|
| Ghost 2.03 | January 1 1997 |
| Ghost 2.04 | January 10 1997 |
| Ghost 2.05 | January 16 1997 |
| Ghost 2.06 | January 20 1997 |
| Ghost 2.07 | January 22 1997 |
| Ghost 2.08 | February 3 1997 |
| Ghost 2.09 | February 6 1997 |
| Ghost 2.10 | February 10 1997 |
| Ghost 2.11 | February 17 1997 |
| Ghost 2.12 | February 18 1997 |
| Ghost 2.14 | February 27 1997 |
| Ghost 2.15 | March 1 1997 |
| Ghost 2.17 | March 12 1997 |
| Ghost 2.18 | March 26 1997 |
| Ghost 2.19 | April 4 1997 |
| Ghost 2.20 | April 10 1997 |
| Ghost 2.21 | April 14 1997 |
| Ghost 2.22 | April 24 1997 |
| Ghost 3.1a | June 26 1997 |
| Ghost 3.1c | July 29 1997 |
| Ghost 3.1d | August 28 1997 |
| Ghost 4.0a | December 3 1997 |
| Ghost 4.0b | February 8 1998 |
| Ghost 4.0c | February 10 1998 |
| Ghost 4.0d | February 18 1998 |
| Ghost 4.1a | March 11 1998 |
| Ghost 5.0a | April 21 1998 |
| Ghost 5.0b | April 30 1998 |
| Ghost 5.0c | May 6 1998 |
| Ghost 5.0d | May 14 1998 |
| Ghost 5.0e | July 8 1998 |
| Ghost 5.1b | September 14 1998 |
| Ghost 5.1c | February 2 1999 |
| Ghost 5.1d | June 16 1999 |
| Ghost 6.01 | October 22 1999 |
| Ghost 6.03 | February 10 2000 |
| Ghost 6.50 | September 1 2000 |
| Ghost 7.0 | April 6 2001 |
| Ghost 7.5 | December 11 2001 |
| Symantec Ghost (corporate) version | Date released |
| Ghost 6.5 Enterprise Edition | September 18 2000 |
| Ghost 7.0 Enterprise Edition | April 19 2001 |
| Ghost 7.5 Corporate Edition | January 15 2002 |
| Ghost 8.0 Corporate Edition | October 20 2003 |
| Ghost Solution Suite 1.0 (AKA Ghost 8.2) |
November 15 2004 |
| Ghost Solution Suite 1.1 (AKA Ghost 8.3) |
December 12 2005 |
| Ghost Solution Suite 2.0 (AKA Ghost 11.0) |
November 1 2006 |
| Norton Ghost (consumer) version | Date released |
| Ghost 5.1 Personal Edition | July 13 1999 |
| Ghost 2000 Personal Edition | August 2 1999 |
| Ghost 2001 | September 28 2000 |
| Ghost 2002 | September 5 2001 |
| Ghost 2003 | August 27 2002 |
| Ghost 9.0 (includes Ghost 2003) |
August 2 2004 |
| Ghost 10.0 (includes Ghost 2003) |
September 13 2005 |
| Save & Restore (Ghost 10.0 plus file backup and restore) |
February 27 2006 |
| Ghost 12.0 | February 19 2007 |
PowerQuest
At the end of 2003, Symantec acquired its largest competitor, PowerQuest. It then released Norton Ghost 9.0 on August 2, 2004 as a new consumer version of Ghost, based on version 7 (the last major version produced by PowerQuest before being acquired by Symantec) of PowerQuest's DriveImage product. Norton Ghost 9 can back up partitions and entire drives and supports direct cloning (without first backing up a partition and writing the image on a different partition). Ghost 9 is not backward compatible with previous versions of Ghost in that it won't restore GHO images created by Ghost 8 or earlier. However, there is a version of Ghost 8 included on the Ghost 9 recovery disk hidden under the "restore legacy image" option in utilities. This ensures backwards compatibility with previous versions of Ghost. The version of Ghost 8 included cannot restore images made by version 8.3 of Ghost, which was released later.
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, such as the ability to write to NTFS filesystems from MS-DOS, got folded into the main Ghost product. Symantec released a prototype of Phantom as Ghost for Manufacturing in 2003.
Alternatives including Freeware
- See Disk cloning
References
- Binary Research Ghost Version History
- Symantec News
- Symantec News Australia
- Symantec Ghost Release Details (Dates seems somewhat questionable based on press releases)
- Symantec Ghost Solution Suite Release Details (Dates seems somewhat questionable based on press releases)