THE EASIEST PC BACKUP WE EVER SAW

By Bob and Joy Schwabach  |   2008-7-7  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THIS is so cool we're not sure where to begin. That's because it's actually two cool backup things, so we can start with either one.

We'll start with "ClickFree," a 120-gigabyte pocket-sized hard drive that plugs into any Windows computer and backs up all your files. No, we don't mean you first load some software and then select what you want to backup, you just plug the drive into a USB port and boom, off it goes. Now that's really click-free. You can take the drive around to five Windows PCs, plug it in and it will back them all up. We found it for US$105 at Amazon. It doesn't get any easier than this, except maybe the next backup thingy.

The other kind of ClickFree backup comes as a set of three DVDs for US$10. There are three kinds of packages: one for office files, one for photos and one for music. Each set is US$10. Take out one of the disks - the digital photo backup, for example, and put it in the DVD drive on any Windows computer. A box will come up showing the number of files and how much space they will occupy. You will have the opportunity to save all or to select which you want to save. The disk will then collect the photos and store them to that same DVD. The three disks in the US$10 package can hold 6,000 photos. The backup handles photos in any of 70 digital formats, including the RAW files used by some professionals.

The set of disks for backing up digital music can hold 3,000 songs. The disk is for storage only; it will not play on your stereo. The set for the office can hold 27,000 files. Once again, just put in the disk and it's all automatic. If three aren't enough, the company sells packs of 10 for US$28. Website: GoClickFree.com.

FLASH DRIVE FAILURES

We never had a flash drive fail, but a reader dropped us a note recently to say that his flash drive had failed and that we should alert people to the problem. Okay.