Ghost versus True Image?

Anyone able to lay out the pro's & cons of these two imaging programs - Norton Ghost 14.0 & Acronis True Image Home 2009?

I realize some people prefer earlier versions of both these programs but I am trying to choose between the two latest - & supported - versions. I was leaning towards Acronis based on general web-buzz but then read a True Image forum where many people were complaining that they had made, & verified, back-up images with Acronis only to find that when they tried to reinstall them the files were corrupted.

Are there significant differences in features between these two programs? Is one more reliable or is it just that my searching has turned up the vocal unhappy minority? Would I be just as well served by the back-up utilities in Vista?!

Experience-based opinions welcome.

 

I'm not a pro on this by any means, but I've used the recovery feature on my HP desktop about 4 times, each time it worked pretty well. it had all the drivers and kept my documents. It did uninstall all my programs though. This might've been HP's recovery and not Vista's though...

 

i have had no luck with acronis but i did try casper it worked ok all true image did was take forever and crash and add bloatware just my 2cents

 

i personally prefer acronis. but for most of my backup and imaging needs, at home, i use windows home server.

else, i normally use acronis from time to time. i always disliked ghost. and norton anyways

 

I still use an old copy of Ghost 2003. It is much faster than Acronis at creating an image file. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against Acronis. I do like it a lot and still use it for SOME things. But for a image backup that I know I will always want to restore in its entirety, I use Ghost 2003. The speed difference on a 50 GIG partition was about 30% faster in Ghost. I have no idea why. But I did a side by side comparison using exactly the same source partition and target drive for the image.

Gary

 

I ditched Norton Ghost ever since I found True Image! Why? I just can't tell you. Use it once and you'll never go back I promise you.

 

Did you ever compare the speed? Like I said, there are times I do use Acronis. But when speed matters and the ability to easily browse the image (where Acronis is the BEST) does not matter, I go with Ghost 2003.

Gary

 

Why is Acronis better that Ghost, Gary? The last time I used Norton Ghost, browsing for files in that was as easy as browsing in Windows. What has changed/is better in Acronis?

 

Well, I don't install either one on my laptop. I run them from a bootable CD. Ghost 2003 requires you to install it on the laptop to browse the image. You can't browse and image from the bootable Ghost 2003 CD. Acronis supports that function on the bootable cd.

Gary

 

I think it has the capability to let us browse from a bootable Ghost CD. I don't know about making an image while booting from a Ghost CD, as I never did that, but IIRC, I had browsed my image from a bootable Ghost CD. I could be wrong though, it was like 5-6 years ago.

 

Nope, it did not have that feature then. I use Ghost 2003 all the time. That was the version from six years ago. With Ghost 2003 and some earlier versions, if you wish to browse the files INSIDE an image, you needed to install Ghost in windows and then use the windows app that let you browse the image. But god help you if the image spanned multiple CD's or DVD's the swapping would drive you crazy. Ghost even warns you that if the image will span multiple media, that browsing will be problematic.

And I always use a bootable CD when making images of partitions. It doesn't matter what tool I use. In fact I won't use an image tool that does not support being run from a bootable CD. I don't trust 'em.

Gary

 

Add Paragon >>>>>> it have new feature >>>>capsule(more compression for backup image)

 

I use Ghost 14. cause Acronis couldnt see my external HDD with recovery poit.
Maybe new version already does. Maybe ?

If Acronis could see my ex. HDD, then I would use it, cause I like that Acronis dont have to be installed on WIN.

But does Ghost 2003 support Vista? I dont think so.


http://data-backup-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

 

Ghost 14 wouldn't even install on my system, while Acronis True Image Home 2009 worked flawlessly.

 

Sure it does. When I boot from my standalone Ghost 2003 cd, it doesn't know or care what OS is on a partition when I backup or restore it. I never install any image app onto the OS. There is no point in doing so, that I can see. I always use bootable media when dealing with any imaging.

Gary