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Norton Ghost users - Welcome to Symantec System Recovery!

Andreas_Horlach
Level 6
Employee Accredited

As announced today (15 March 2013), Norton Ghost 15 is being discontinued, and will be replaced with Symantec System Recovery (SSR) 2013 Desktop edition. Click here for details. We'd like to welcome those customer who already have made the transition, or are thinking about it! Please use this thread to discuss any non-technical issues, such as functionality, upgrade information, etc. If you encounter a technical issue and require technical epertise, you are in good hands. This board is monitored by several SSR specialists, ready to assist. Simply start your own thread with your question. 

On the surface, Ghost 15 and SSR 2013 are very similar in the look and feel. The console hasn't changed much, so using the product itself should not be much of a learning curve. However, the engine itself has gone through several improvements. Here are a few of the changes in SSR 2013 from Ghost 15:       

  • Support for Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8
  • UEFI Support: Symantec System Recovery now enables boot from UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) in addition to BIOS.
  • 64 bit Support:  32-bit and 64-bit recovery disks are now included. 
  • USB Recovery Disk: Create a custom Symantec System Recovery Disk on a USB device. Add 32- or 64-bit drivers.
  • Advanced Monitoring and Reporting: Symantec System Recovery Monitor is a new monitoring solution that's extremely simple to use and is FREE of charge to all Symantec System Recovery 2013 customers. It's a standalone and lightweight solution for managing up to 100 nodes. It’s simplicity and no extra dependency eliminates the learning curve for users. Intuitive GUI along with essential action controls provide crisp status along with ability to take desired actions seamlessly through the same view.
  • Improved support for virtual environments: Greater support for ESX, VMWare, HyperV, and Citrix.
  • Smart Reconciliation:  Now Backups and reconciliation are efficiently done by smartly tracking changed blocks. The reconcile time is drastically reduced to seconds by eliminating the need to do a complete reconcile in cases of crashes or abrupt shutdowns. In addition,  incremental backups are now up to 750% faster. (Incremental Backup without reconcile at least 35%, Full Backup 15% faster, Incremental Backup with reconcile – At least 750% faster than Norton Ghost 15)
     

For more information on SSR 2013, visit http://www.symantecsystemrecovery.com.

Again, welcome Norton Ghost users! Please let us help make the transition to SSR 2013 as seamless as possible. 

97 REPLIES 97

jamesasmithsr
Not applicable

Is SSR 2013 backward compadible with the images created with NG15?

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

I'm checking on this for you....

criley
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited

I've just had this confirmed: yes, SSR 2013 is backwards compatible with Ghost 15.

anila
Level 3
Hi, I just found out that Ghost will no longer be supported and we should move to SSR13. I am ok with this exciting move but here is my issue... about a month ago or so my Windows XP computer died (i.e. some hardware, not the hard disk) and I had to buy a new computer. I was "forced" to get a Windows 8 computer. I have at least 3-4 Ghost 15 licenses of which I could not install one on this new Windows 8 computer. I checked the Ghost forum and a lot of people were complaining not being able to use Ghost 15.0 on Windows 8 and caught by surprise. I must admit when I bought Ghost 15 licenses (retail boxes), I didn't pay attention at the time since I made assumption that newer versions would support newer Windows OS and I was simply behind in not having the latest OS. Is there any way for me to get at least one (may be two) Ghost 15.0 license upgraded/changed to SSR13 desktop edition? Please let me know. Thanks, Anil

MchBr
Level 3

I've just seen the announcement as well and downloaded SSR 2013.  When I read the readme file I saw two bullets that caught my attention:
 

  • Symantec System Recovery 2013 does not support computers that use the GRUB boot loader.

  • Symantec System Recovery 2013 does not support computers that use Fedora Core3 Ext2/Ext3 or Grub 2 boot managers.

I do have Grub2 with WIndows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 on my system. What is not functioning with SSR 2013?

(When I was still on Windows 7 & Ubuntu 12.10 with Grub 2 as boot manager Norton Ghost 15 worked perfectly).

I did install SSR 2013 and made one backup of my C-Disk, no errors encounted.

Thanks for any assistance.....

Michael

 

Andreas_Horlach
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Michael -

The backups will complete succesfully, as SSR 2013 supports those file systems. The issue would likely be during the restore. All partitions will likely be laid down succesfully, but the GRUB and\or GRUB 2 boot manager may not lay down correctly, resulting in a non-bootable system, which would require you to rebuild your GRUB bootloader. 

MchBr
Level 3

Andy,

thanks for your fast response. So, together with a tool that rebuilds my GRUB environment ('boot-repair') this should work fine, correct? First restore the system, then repair the boot manager and then restart....

Another question:  for my system would you recommend to use the Windows or the Linux version of SSR 2013?  In the Windows version I could not see my Ubuntu partition (ext4), would I see the NTFS partitions in the Linux version?

Thanks again.

Michael

 

 

JAta2
Level 4
Just installed the trial version and everything went great. Want to make the purchase but don't have the coupons that were mentioned... when can I expect them?

Andreas_Horlach
Level 6
Employee Accredited

The coupons are being generated and should go out shortly. If you are using the SSR 2013 desktop beta but did not download it throught this link, please do so asap: http://check.symantec.com/ssr2013_tw_en.html. This is for desktop version only.

JAta2
Level 4

Thanks!  I'll look forward to receiving it.

rburrow48
Level 3

If SSR2013 is backward compatible with Ghost 15 how do you get the SSR2013 to reconize the G15 backup jobs and back up history ? Ghost 15 was deleted by Norton Removal tool and I could not reload G15 so I had to load SSR2013. I hope I can use the GB15 files that are on my backup drive if not I am in for another long backup session. a note  ( Nortons Removal tool removed  GB15 when I was having trouble with N360) I back up very many photos and it takes very many hours do it from scratch. I hope someone can help!!!

Andreas_Horlach
Level 6
Employee Accredited

The history and job data for Ghost 15 was likely deleted by the Ghost removal tool. The data you backed up was not deleted, but if SSR 2013 did not recognize the backup job and history from Ghost, it looks like you will need to recreate your backup job(s). The Norton removel tool does indeed remove everything Norton.

One suggestion - if you backup your entire volume that contains the pictures, a single backup file is created (e.g.: MyComputerBackup.V2i). Within SSR 2013 is a tool that allows you to mount that image fileanytime to a drive letter. You can use Windows Explorer to browse that drive letter and copy files from. Additionally, if your volume crashed and the drive was replaced, you could restore the volume verbatim back to the new drive.)

Andreas_Horlach
Level 6
Employee Accredited

Yes, that should work. Test that scenario and let me know. 

 

Symantec System Recovery 2013 Linux Edition supports backing up the following file systems:
 
■ ReiserFS version 3
■ EXT2
■ EXT3
■ EXT4
■ FAT16 with 2-GB limit
■ FAT32
■ XFS
 
(Other file systems such as Btrfs, JFS, NSS, and Reiser4 are not supported.) If you wnt to backup NTFS, you would need to use the WIndows version.
 
While ext4 is supported, Ubuntu itself has not been tested and qualified. If the ext4 partition is not showing up, you may want to create another Ubuntu ext4 partition, as a test, and see if this shows up. If it does, there might be an issue with the non-visible ext4 partition.

rburrow48
Level 3

Thanks Andy H.   I guess I will setup new backups and go from there. Thanks for the help. Hope to get the 40% coupon soon so I an purchase SSR 2013. Thanks again !!!

MchBr
Level 3

Hi Andy,

thanks, I will try that once I do have the coupon and have bought the product.
As far as I know, one cannot restore with the test version....

One correction to my earlier statement that I could not see my Ubuntu partition. It shows up if I click 'hidden disks' (or so). But slecting this partition does not allow me to use 'incremental backups'. But I can live with that as currently I backup this partition via Clonezilla.

I will come back once I checked the suggested process and let you all know the outcome.

 

Best regards 
Michael
 

rburrow48
Level 3

Andy

Thanks for your help just finished my backup. I started all over with a new backup job took about 16 hrs but I have my photos backed up !!! A little panic when Norton Removal Tool deleted Ghost 15 but all is good now. Ready to buy SSR 2013 when the coupon comes.. Thanks again!!!!!

rburrow48
Level 3

Andy,

Got my discount coupon and have purchased SSR 2013 and downloaded. My question before I start to unzip and load will I get an email with a license key ? If not when I load will it wipe out the trial and save my backup jobs to the new program? I do not want to run another 16 hr backup. Thanks....

JohnTech
Level 4

After the purchase, I got an email the  following day with the license key.  I have been testing SSR 2013 for two weeks and each time I started it, it prompts me for the key (which I did not have previously).  The trial software evidently stops working after 60 days.  

I entered the key and now no longer get the prompt.  It did NOT overwrite any backups etc. I have done in the last two weeks.

You should also go to the Symantec website and register your product.

rburrow48
Level 3

Thanks JohnTech !!!!