Does anyone have experience with Ghost 2003 with XP Pro 64 bit version?

       Hymie

Rad wrote on Dec 20^th, 2006 at 11:13am:

Rad, while I almost agree with your statement, I think it needs a little clarification.

While, since Ghost 2003 works from DOS it doesn't matter which version of Windows you're using, it DOES matter what hardware you are using.

Ghost 2003, being a DOS program, must recognize and support all hardware and i/o interfaces itself.  That's the nature of DOS as compared to Windows applications. 

A PC hardware built on 2007 and even later years standards may or may not be properly supported by a DOS program from 4 years earlier.  We're already seeing that with current SATA features and modern bios and motherboard issues and PCI card issues.  Next comes PCI express cards etc etc etc.

So, I agree, DOS Ghost 2003 will likely support any operating system.  But not necessarily all current (and future) PC hardware.

Let's hope that Vista software doesn't require some sort of hardware technology change to be fully implemented.

I remember when Windows Me came out.  As I recall, you couldn't install it on a lot of motherboards.  There was some sort of new bios feature (ACPI or APCI I can't remember exactly) that was required for Me to install and work fully.

If that happens with Vista, that could be a premature death to Ghost 2003 and other DOS programs after the new hardware specs occurs.

I sense something like that is occurring because Microsoft has a new imaging backup software out.  And, Symantec (and I assume others) are releasing backup versions targeted to Vista.

Even looking at the Ghost 2003, Ghost 9, 10, and Save & Restore versions are really released addressing more hardware support changes than functional software changes.  The reasons for upgrading in the last 4 years have been, in my opinion, more for hardware support than for new features.