Partimage Is Not Ghost (hence PING) is a software meant for backing up partitions or entire HDDs. It’s just like Norton Ghost (or Symantec Ghost) but with a few difference. First of all, it’s free and open source. And secondly, it is based on Linux. So what you get is a bootable CD (or DVD) and it works independent on your operating system . So if you are using Windows or Linux, it doesn’t matter. What it matters is that you have a CD-ROM Drive and HDDs to backup.

This powerful software allows you to do backup through a Microsoft Network. So just like Symantec Ghost, you can backup or restore partitions through your network easily but without the need for expensive software. And best of all, since it is based on Linux, you get a lot of support for different network cards, making it much convenient to do restoring and backing up through the network. You don’t need to worry about drivers and stuff. It also supports CD and DVD Burning, allowing you to do your backups on CD and DVD media. And from PING’s documentation, it seems that they also allows backup or BIOS data. I am not sure how that works, but it should be a good thing. PING also claims to support more file systems than their competitors, so you shouldn’t have to worry about what type of filesystems your system is running.

If you are looking for a open source alternative to Norton Ghost, you should really give PING a try. All you need is a burner and you are really to backup your entire office’s PCs. Probably take you one quarter the time you would if you have to do Windows installations every 6 months or so. Just don’t ask me why they named their software like that. Anyways, I am always keen to hear about new and exciting software, so if you find any out there on the Internet, give me a little heads up so that I can do a review on it.