removing norton ghost 9 from a vista laptop (acer)

[sobriquet]

Hello.
On some laptop someone was foolish enough to install an old version of
norton ghost and now it seems impossible to remove it. I've tried
removing it in save mode, but then it gives an error msg during
removal about windows installer software. When I download the norton
removal tool, there are two versions, one that is supposed to be able
to remove ghost 9 and it says it won't install because it's expired
and there is a newer version that refuses to install while ghost 9 is
still installed (and it can only be used to remove ghost versions 10
to 12). When I try to remove ghost with remove programs in the
configuration, it suddenly stops it's activities during the uninstall
and the program doesn't seem to be removed.
Does anyone know how to resolve this issue and remove ghost 9 from the
vista laptop?

Kind regards and thanks a lot for any suggestions, Niek

 

[John Barnes]

If the uninstall tool won't work, you will have to remove it manually. In
msconfig, disable any startup items and services related to Ghost. Then go
into the appropriate program files and send the Ghost folder to the recycle
bin. Restart the computer and see if you have any startup problems. If
not, you can delete the registry entries associated with Ghost. Make sure
you have a backup registry. You can then use regedit or use a program like
ccleaner to find and remove any entries associated with Ghost. Be very
careful. It is no big deal to leave the few registry entries behind that
will not be invoked anyway.

 

[sobriquet]

If the uninstall tool won't work, you will have to remove it manually.  In
msconfig, disable any startup items and services related to Ghost.  Thengo
into the appropriate program files and send the Ghost folder to the recycle
bin.  Restart the computer and see if you have any startup problems.  If
not, you can delete the registry entries associated with Ghost.  Make sure
you have a backup registry.  You can then use regedit or use a program like
ccleaner to find and remove any entries associated with Ghost.  Be very
careful.  It is no big deal to leave the few registry entries behind that
will not be invoked anyway.

[..]

I've had problems with previous attempts to manually remove software
from windows. Eventually, it
turns out the acer laptop had recovery dvds on a hidden partition, so
we could restore the computer to the clean default state.