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.
