OliverJia, I came to the same conclusion - Drive Snapshot is faster. BTW, Ghost's High compression is considered level 3. I use the switch -Z5, which means compression level 5, which is even higher compression (max is level 9). The image creation speed is only barely affected by the higher compression. Drive Snapshot is much quicker at default compression, which is good enough, and as easy to use as Ghost (only one small file to run). Ghost has the advantage that its .GHO images can be easily edited using Ghost Explorer (adding/removing files on the fly), while Drive Snapshot only allows you to mount and explore the contents of the .SNA file in read-only mode. You can copy files from the .SNA image, but cannot make changes to it.
"Why did Ghost take such a significantly longer time for a backup job, as compared to others?"I do agree with your opinion oliverjia i did use Ghost since 1996 till now for nostalgic reasons now i switched tp drive snapshot with is lightning fast in comparison with the Dos Ghost executable... Greetz
After deciding to leave Ghost behind, I tried several paid versions of backup programs and decided to stick with Acronis True Image. It has saved me on several occasions and has worked very well. I have it on all my systems and scheduled to run at various times because it backs up to a NAS. It is very flexible and easy to use.
New version of Ghost has been released (Altiris branch) - version 12.0.0.7248 Files have digital signature dated Feb 08, 2016.
tegl, thanks for your contribution. This thread is now considered obsolete. Please post your Ghost info on the new thread that LostED has published. In addition, please read my findings in the new thread regarding the difference I found between the Altiris version and the GSS version.