Symantec announced Norton Ghost 2003, a flexible and robust imaging solution designed to provide home PC users and small businesses with high-performance utilities for system upgrading, backup and recovery. Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 allows customers to save valuable time while protecting their data by providing an easy-to-use Windows-based interface that streamlines the backup and restore process. Norton Ghost 2003 is scheduled to be available in early September. Norton Ghost 2003 now offers small business customers the ability to save and restore images from network drives, providing an ideal solution for protecting critical data from computer disasters. In addition, Norton Ghost 2003 has achieved the "Designed for Windows XP" Logo Certification, offering customers an effective solution for migrating to Microsoft's latest operating system.

"Norton Ghost 2003 offers home PC users and small businesses the toolset they need to effectively protect their data by conducting comprehensive imaging, backup and disaster recovery tasks," said Steve Cullen, senior vice president, Consumer and Client Product Delivery at Symantec. "Based on the industry-leading Symantec Ghost Corporate Edition, Norton Ghost 2003 provides customers with faster performance and functionality similar to that used by IT professionals around the world."

Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 enables users to efficiently create disk images and store them on hard disk drives, multiple types of media and supported CD-R/RW and DVD/RW drives. The product allows users to take advantage of the latest high-performance storage and data transfer devices including USB 1.1, 2.0, DVD and FireWire.

For increased flexibility, Norton Ghost 2003 supports a wide range of file systems including Linux EXT3, EXT2, Microsoft FAT and NTFS. Norton Ghost offers cloning capabilities for an entire hard drive or specified partitions while automatically determining the partition sizes for the destination drive. Users are also provided with the ability to manipulate disk images, allowing them to easily restore individual files, directories, or entire drives from a Ghost image.

Norton Ghost 2003 also enables customers to back-up hard disk drives by writing disk images directly to many popular CD-R/RW and DVD/RW drives, as well as a variety of the most popular removable magnetic media, including ZIP, JAZ and more. This functionality offers users the tools needed to conduct weekly back-ups of their data and perform specific events, such as migrating to a new operating system.

Pricing and Availability

Symantec's Norton Ghost 2003 is scheduled to be available in early September for an estimated retail price of US$69.95. For small business users, the product will be available in 5-user and 10-user packs for estimated retail prices of US$279.95 and US$559.95 respectively. Customers will be able to purchase Norton Ghost 2003 from various retail locations, Symantec's online store at www.SymantecStore.com, as well as other online retailers