When computers were first introduced into the workplace, they increased efficiency by streamlining workflow and automating or eliminating tedious, repetitive tasks. Ironically, as generations of system administrators and technicians have discovered, setting up numerous virtually identical PC stations is itself a tedious, repetitive task that can drain staff, time, and financial resources. Symantec Corp. seeks to address this problem in the newest version of its venerable Ghost software, long used by system administrators and technicians to speed up the repetitive task of PC setup.

Although Ghost's original purpose was simply to allow the quick duplication of hard drives, the current version, Ghost 7.0, extends that functionality with the goal of making the application more useful to enterprises. Among the most beneficial of Ghost's new features is the Multicast Server, which allows the simultaneous replication of a single disk image to multiple remote systems. Ghost also allows administrators to copy user profiles, perform incremental data backups, and customize installation configurations. These features are all controlled using a single system running Enterprise Console, the software's remote administration tool.

With a rich set of configuration and backup tools, Ghost 7.0 appears to offer everything a system administrator could want. But disappointment begins with installation. The user interface is singularly unintuitive, and some users will also have to deal with multiple reboots and an extended installation process. The Windows Installer may need to be updated, and Internet Explorer 4.0 or later (5.0 or later for NT) may need to be installed manually before the console can be installed.

Ghost retains its most ancient incarnation in ghost.exe, and its dependence on DOS is its primary drawback. Clients must be booted into DOS mode any time you need to perform a major operation, including cloning, reconfiguring, or backing up a disk. Naturally, this takes extra time, making Ghost less efficient than competitor Drive Image Pro from PowerQuest, which doesn't rely on DOS mode to clone disks.

Using Ghost's Boot Wizard, it is possible to create a disk to boot in DOS and use this powerful command-line utility to do an old-fashioned, straightforward disk duplication. More commonly, boot disks will be created for the purpose of using Ghost's features remotely. Boot disks can also be created for other configurations, including network drive support, CD-ROMs, and automatic writing to CD-R/RW discs.

Enterprise IT staff will be most interested in using the boot disks to connect networked clients to a Multicast Server for downloading. Because the Ghost executable can be invoked from a DOS batch file, boot disks can be made that automatically connect each client to the Multicast Server, leaving the administrator to do nothing more than choose the disk image file to be installed and begin the transmission.

Image files are the primary way of cloning disks, and they are typically created by connecting a client to the Multicast Server, although they can also be created from the command line using ghost.exe. Image files may be modified using Ghost Explorer, which allows you to alter the contents of an image file and perform the

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