Clickfree backup, $129.99 (U.S.) for 120 GB model; $159.99 for the 160 GB model
The holy grail of software salesmen is to have programs that are stunningly easy to use while also being useful. Now some programmers are catching up, making normally complicated tasks much easier. Following are three such results.
Backing up your data has been an inexplicably difficult operation for many people, but the Storage Appliance Corp. of Richmond Hill, Ont., has produced a product that is not only foolproof, but also reasonably cheap. The Clickfree Automatic Backup is a small black or chrome-coloured pocket-sized case a little larger than the 2.5-inch hard disk it contains, and it connects to your computer via a USB cable.
The name Clickfree is a trifle mendacious — if you're a Vista user, you'll probably get Vista's pop-up box asking whether you really want to run the backup, and you'll have to click on that.
After that, Clickfree runs on its own. It will rummage about your computer for your files, photos, videos, e-mail and e-mail attachments and other data files (not program or system files), and back them up. The box comes in two sizes — 120 gigabytes and 160 GB — which should be enough for most home-computer needs. (It can back up several computers, but only when connected directly to each; home networks will require a more powerful product.) When Clickfree has finished, a box appears on the screen that will show you the statistics of the backup, allow you to browser the files and search through them or view the photos. There is also an option to erase the entire backup.
Clickfree derives its power from the PC's USB port and, if you need more power, the cable has an extra connector, so you can draw power from two USB ports at once. If you lose the USB cable, Clickfree can run on a 5-volt DC power supply (not included).
It runs on the fast USB 2.0 standard, which let me back up 4,031 files, a total of 63.6 GB, in only 75 minutes. The second time it's connected, Clickfree looks only for files that have changed, and replaces its own copies with the newer ones.
There is nothing revolutionary about the hardware; the secret sauce in the product is the software embedded inside, which requires no installation or configuration or any kind of tweaking from the user. Plug it in, wait a minute while Windows finds the driver (it runs only on Windows 2000, XP or Vista, not OSX or Linux), and forget it.
It doesn't get much simpler than this — although simplicity has a price. If you use a program that creates files Cklickfree doesn't recognize, you will have to do some configuration to add those files as well; you might have a folder with many different kinds of files in it, so you will have to tell Clickfree to add all of them, and if you want to restore your files to a new computer, you'll have to do that manually. Another thing Clickfree doesn't have is the ability to schedule regular backups; you'll have to actively plug it in periodically, and remember to do so.
One popular option Clickfree doesn't cater to is the scheduled backup. Most back-up systems, both hardware products and online services, offer to perform back-ups at a specific time, usually in the middle of the night while you are away and your computer is not in use. With Clickfree, the onus is on you to actively pull it out of your drawer or storage area and use it on a regular basis.
For more modest backups, Clickfree also sells, separately, packs of almost-blank DVDs that do exactly the same thing as the hard-disk version does, but with the intent of burning the backups into a permanent storage. The software is designed to find specifically photos, music or office files, and comes in three sizes: a package of three ($9.99), five ($14.99) or 10 DVDs ($27.99), with each disk having a capacity of about 4.5 GB.
Know Your Stuff, from the Insurance Bureau of Canada , freeware.
An acquisitive society requires something to keep track of all our possessions in case fire, fate or felons take them away from us. Enter the Insurance Bureau of Canada, a national industry association representing private home, car and business insurers, with a free software program designed to keep track of your things, and it has a name the late George Carlin would have loved: Know Your Stuff.
