# What is the best alternative to Norton Ghost? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2012, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635 "2012-07-18T16:30:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2012, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/21 "2012-07-22T00:51:09Z")
Great link. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/22 "2012-07-23T05:20:30Z")
That link has outdated information–there is a Clonezilla that has network support. And while I haven’t tried that one, I have recently used the offline version, and it was incredibly simple. It has no GUI, but it didn’t need it. It just asked a few questions, and then got on with its work. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/23 "2012-07-23T12:25:52Z")
Spent a good chunk of yesterday experimenting with the Fog Project. Got stuck when I couldn’t get my client machine to see the DHCP server on my Fog server. I didn’t want to modify the DHCP settings on my production DHCP server… Here’s the project: > **[FOG Project](https://fogproject.org/)** > > A free open-source network computer cloning and management solution I think if I have too much trouble with Fog I’ll move to Clonezilla’s stand-alone option as my short-term replacement for Ghost, and then try to implement the server edition of Clonezilla. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/24 "2012-07-23T12:39:45Z")
> [@xash](#): > > [www.acronis.com](http://www.acronis.com) is my personal favorite. I noticed they have several versions: home, workstation, etc. Any comparison advice or features that you need that wouldn’t be in some other version? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/25 "2012-07-23T12:45:31Z")
Acronis has TONS of bells and whistles. I haven’t worked with it in a year or two now, but I’m guessing that unless you’re working for a huge IT department, the weakest version of Acronis is still 100X more powerful than you need for whatever you’re doing. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/26 "2012-07-23T23:52:13Z")
Acronis requires a license for each machine as well. The usual way of handling this in a business is imagex and sysprep. ---
**Author:** ![JimNightshade](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jimnightshade/32/3354_2.png) [@JimNightshade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimNightshade)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2012, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635/27 "2012-07-24T15:01:47Z")
Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Windows Deployment Services are free and does the job (assuming you are using windows desktops). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-best-alternative-to-norton-ghost/628635.md?page=1)