Now you can schedule one-time, weekly, or monthly backups in the Backup Job Wizard by setting a day and time (for example, Sunday at 10 a.m.) and letting Ghost run unattended. One of Version 9.0's best upgrades is its new backup scheduler, a must-have tool that was surprisingly absent from Ghost 2003. By comparison, Acronis True Image estimates the file size for each compression choice and gives you a ballpark figure of the time it'll take to perform a given backup.

Does a medium archive take longer to compress? What's the file size of a standard backup? For answers, you'll have to search the help file or manual. The Drive Backup Wizard, for instance, lists three backup options (standard, medium, or high compression) but doesn't explain the pros and cons of each. According to Symantec tech support, there's no way to delete the tray icon. It's very easy, but we have one gripe: Ghost drops an icon in Windows' Taskbar tray, a narrow corner of screen space that's often jam-packed with too many icons. A helpful setup wizard steps you through the basics-a few mouse clicks and you're done-before automatically rebooting your computer. Norton Ghost 9.0 installs in just a few minutes. Norton Ghost 9.0 is best for upgraders everyone else should choose Acronis True Image. But while Ghost 9.0 shows great promise, its backup and overall performance speed still lags behind that of Acronis True Image 8.0, a product that also offers more features for the same price.

Version 9.0's predecessor, Norton Ghost 2003, forced you to reboot and load DOS before running a backup, a clunky design that made Windows inaccessible until the backup was complete. Ghost 9.0 now lets you make a duplicate 'image' of your hard drive's contents-copying all the files, programs, and settings-by incorporating technology from Drive Image, an imaging tool that Symantec acquired when it purchased PowerQuest Corporation in 2003. Symantec's Norton Ghost 9.0 takes a major leap forward by allowing Windows XP and 2000 users to create byte-by-byte hard disk backups-useful for mirroring standard software configurations across new office desktops-without rebooting their PC or leaving Windows.

Windows 98 norton ghost download