Ghost (and other drive backup programs) is basically a drive backup. It creates an image file of what ever drive you select (or portions of the drive) including formatting and everything. This lets you do a complete restore of the drive (and os if you backed up that drive) in one shot (and way faster).
Personally i use a program like Norton ghost in the following way. I will do a clean format and reinstall of my os, then i will install all drivers, os patches and fixes, and applications/utilities i always use (no games though). Then i will create a "ghost" (other image type in my case, i dont use ghost) image of that drive.
Once that is done i can restore the ghost at will and have a clean new install on that system in about 30 minutes or more (depending on the speed of the drives, where it is stored etc). Otherwise such a reinstall by hand talkes 1-2 days.
These programs can also usualy do incremental/differential backing up, and work ok at it too, but your better off setting up a separate image specificly for that kind of backing up and only back up specific areas (like my documents etc). They also often come with scheduler programs so you can specify to back up when your asleep (if you leave the computer running 24/7)
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