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Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

Most of you know "Norton Ghost", even more often known as "Symantec Ghost".
But it wasn't published by Symantec first. Binary Research started to sell Version 1.0 (1.1) in 1996, followed by Version 2.0 (2.07) and Version 3.0 (3.1) - latest minor version in brackets.
The first 2 versions runs even with an IBM XT and without extended memory.
Starting with Version 3 it uses XMS and needed a 286 CPU, Version 4.0 uses Pharlab Extender, but is still running at least with a 286. Starting with Version 5.0, it's running with an 386 and higher. So, if you want to create a hard disk drive image for an IBM AT clone, you can go on with Ghost 4.0a, and the best, it can still be read by later Ghost versions (e.g. with Ghost Explorer). So that could be a way to virtualize your HDD content (and running it with VMWare, VirtualBox or PCem).
For the first 3 versions valid: It can also run with OS/2.

I have made some screenshots, the first 4 versions are running in text mode, starting with Ghost 5, it is a graphics screen with VGA resolution.

This is version 2.07:

and


Version 3.1a:

and


Version 4.0a:

and


Well known, starting with Version 5, all later versions having the same look alike:

and


Ghost Version 1.1 did not support FAT32,
starting with Version 2.0 it had support for FAT32. Both run with conventional RAM only, too.
Since Ghost 3.0, partitions can be imaged as well as a whole drive, but XMS is needed.
Ghost 4.0 images can be read from later Ghost versions.
Ghost Version 5 breaked the 8GB (BIOS) barrier.

Btw. Wikipedia does not list up earlier versions than 3. My blog entry does this ;-)