by PracticallyNetworked staff
August 2, 2004

Symantec Corp., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company that specializes in security, today announced the launch of Norton Ghost 9.0, a disk imaging product designed to offer home and small office users the capability to easily backup system files, documents and other data.

The new version of Norton Ghost is based on technology from PowerQuest Corp.’s Drive Image product, which Symantec acquired last December. According to Symantec, new features in Norton Ghost 9.0 take advantage of the product’s hot imaging technology, which lets you create backup images of a hard drive without having to restart your computer or exit Windows. Background imaging let you continue to work the backup is in process.

Symantec also reports that Norton Ghost’s incremental backup and restore feature means that once an initial image of a hard drive is completed, you need to update only the files and information that have changed rather than backing up the entire hard drive again. In the event it is necessary to restore data, you can choose to restore the entire system or just specific files or folders.

“All computer users, from those with basic technical knowledge to the most advanced users, should regularly backup their computer to prevent the loss of essential system files, important documents and valuable data like digital pictures, music and contact lists,” said Matthew Moynahan, vice president of consumer products and solutions at Symantec Corp, in a statement released today.

Norton Ghost 9.0 allows users to schedule automatic backups by the day or hour, according to Symamtec, and features point-in-time rollback, which lets you choose a specific backup operation and to restore your computer to the exact state it was in at the time of that backup.

The new version is also designed to make finding data, files and folders easy with its capability to mount images as a drive letter so that the backup copy looks just like the original drive. Norton Ghost 9.0 is also backward compatible with PowerQuest Drive Image 7.0, Symantec reports, allowing you to access and restore images created with that versio of the product.

Symantec Recovery Disk is also included in Norton Ghost 9.0. If your operating system is not responding, this tool lets you boot your PC, restore a backup image and perform system fixes and virus scans. For Windows 9x users, the previous version of Norton Ghost is also included. Norton Ghost 9.0 also offers increased driver and interface support for USB, USB2 and FireWire removable storage devices.

Norton Ghost 9.0 is available immediately for $69.95.

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