Ghost is a disk cloning program product sold by Symantec. Originally developed by Murray Haszard in 1995 for Binary Research, the technology was acquired in 1998 by Symantec. The name Ghost is an acronym for General Hardware-Oriented System Transfer.
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 NTsystems 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.
Ghost 3.1
The first versions of Ghost supported only the cloning of entire disks, however version 3.1 in 1997 allowed the cloning of individual partitions. Ghost could clone a disk or partition to another disk or partition or to an image file. Ghost allowed for writing a clone or image to a second disk in the same machine, another machine linked by a parallel or network cable, a network drive, or to a tape drive.
Ghost 4.0 and 4.1
Version 4.0 of Ghost added multicast technology, following the lead of a competitor, ImageCast. Multicasting allows sending a single backup image simultaneously to other 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, 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. 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. In 1998 Gdisk, a script based partition manager, was integrated in Ghost. Gdisk serves a role similar to Fdisk, but has greater capabilities.
Ghost for NetWare
There was also a Norton Ghost version (called 2.0) for Novell NetWare around 1999, with supported NSS partitions (although it ran in DOS, like the others).
Ghost 6.0 (Ghost 2001)
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 7.0 / Ghost 2002
Released March 31, 2001 Norton Ghost version 7.0 (retail) was marketed as Norton Ghost 2002 Personal Edition. Help|About reveals version 7.00.
Ghost 7.5
Released December 14, 2001
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 because the user no longer had to set up their own partition tables. Ghost 7.5 could also write images to CD-R drives, and later versions can also write DVDs.
Symantec Ghost 8.0
Ghost 8.0 includes a standalone executable (filename: 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.
Norton Ghost 2003
Norton Ghost 2003, a consumer edition of Ghost, was released on September 6, 2002. Available as an independent product, Norton Ghost 2003 was also included as a component of Norton SystemWorks 2003 Professional. A simpler, non-corporate version of Ghost, Norton Ghost 2003 does not include the Console but has a Windows front-end to script Ghost operations and create a bootable Ghost diskette (third-party CD burning software can be used to create a bootable Ghost CD based on a bootable Ghost diskette). The machine still needs to reboot to the Virtual Partition, but the user doesn′t need to interact with DOS. Symantec deprecated LiveUpdate support for Norton Ghost 2003 in early 2006. Two Symantec knowledge base articles (Updates to Norton Ghost 2003 How to obtain the programs updates that are archived on Symantec LiveUpdate server) provide step-by-step instructions detailing how to obtain Norton Ghost 2003 updates from the LiveUpdate Archive. As of April 24, 2008, the latest version available from the archive is 2003.793. Older versions of Norton Ghost 2003 can be also updated from a system with a newer version of Norton Ghost 2003 by copying program directory from newer to older. Reliable support for SATA drives was also provided in 2003.793.
