Clickfree Transformer SE product reviews

In this day and age, where data files are becoming huge, backing up to floppy has been overcome by backing up to CD, which in turn has been superceded by backing up to DVD, and now even that is at risk because a hard-drive can hold terabytes of information... regular backups have become almost a thing of the past, unless you invest in a dedicated backup service or a spare terabyte or three of hard-drives in a NAS box. But now there's a simpler, more flexible answer.

This little beastie is quite nifty, though perhaps not quite as nifty as the hype would imply. Take any USB-connective device - be it a flashdrive, an iPod, or that old USB external hard-drive you thought might come in handy one day - and plug it into this little mblack box, and suddenly you have a backup box. The on-board software utilises some basic autoplay functionality and 'portable app' technology to instantly use the available storage space to backup your important files.

The panel that opens up, after some minor configuration, automatically begins to scan your system for around 400 known filetypes for backup. Images, documents, website favourites, etc... it scans, catalogues, and calculates filesize. Then, if your attached device has enough space, begins to copy them off to storage. If, however, you don't have quite enough space, it offers you the opportunity to deselect files, be it by type, by drive or by specific folder. Once you have the selected files down below the available space, you can click to begin backup.

Now, though in ideal situations this device will perform in a click-free manner, realistically the world isn't that clear-cut, and some clicking is going to be required. Personally, for security reasons, we have all autoplay functionality switched OFF by default. This prevents malware self-installing. It also stops legitimate softweare self-activating - but that's a small price to pay for peace-of-mind. So, of course, we had to click to start the software. Confiruration isn't done by voice-command, so a few more clicks... deselecting files is clicks, and telling it to begin backup is another click... so "Click-free" is perhaps at best, a misnomer. Despite this, I think this device is possibly one of the most exciting and functionally powerful units to hit the market in recent years.

Overall, well worth considering if you need to keep even the basics protected from loss. Pull out that old hard-drive sitting gathering dust, get it into an external case, and buy yourself on of these little beauties. Together they make for one seriously powerful backup tool. It works on PC or Mac, and can even enable you to move your music off the iPod and onto your machine easily - which is just a bonus. If mnothing else, I was pleased to be able to give new life to my stack of old hard-drives and the dusty external USB case I haven't used since my PC's internal storage went above 2tb. And yes, there is even a version of this device that hooks into a network, for added functionality.