Norton Ghost in a backup device

I've always been a fan about external USB hard drive enclosures. Originally I used my ADS full-height enclosure for a DVD writer. USB was great for my Windows pc and Firewire was used for my Mac. I was able to move it among all my Windows-based PCs and the occasional use on my Mac. It was so simple and easy that I was able to swap out the original DVD writer for a dual layer DVD writer in no time. Instant usefulness.

Then enclosures became popular with desktop hard drives. It was great to use it as a central repository for files - important backups or just temporary storage. No need to map network hard drives to backup important files and try to remember where you put them a couple of weeks later.

Then I started using them to backup my important files while I wiped out my machines in order to reinstall Windows. This was a frequent practice for me because I often found a fresh install of Windows XP always performed faster and smoother especially with all the spyware, viruses, and trojans that went around. So beneficial, it was commonly becoming a 3-month cycle for me.

With the frequent re-installs of Windows I then found a benefit for Symantec's Norton Ghost. It was software that allowed me to create a complete image backup of my system and store it on a hard drive in a single file (not always). I would create my clean Windows XP install with all service packs and create the backup image. Then, I could initiate the clean process 3 months later. So convenient that it took my 5+ hr reinstall period for Windows XP (with service packs) to less then 30 minutes.

Then I came across an article on PC Magazine that mentioned a product called Maxtor OneTouch. The article immediately had me believe that this whole Norton Ghost process of imaging a system was captured in an external hardware product - complete with hard drive and automatic software! To me it sounded like the hardware would allow me to immediately create a ghost image of my system - and with the size of hard drives nowadays (a 1 terabyte drive can be had for about $200 CDN) - you could probably keep several different stages of backups on the hard drive.

I have yet to see this product in the familiar retail channels (ie. Future Shop, Best Buy, Costco, Sams Club) to try it out. So until then, your guess is as good as mine to whether it works the way i think it might.