back to article Clickfree Traveler SSD

The Clickfree concept is to provide effortless file backups for people who want hassle-free security from data loss. Yet the original Clickfree Portable drive received a mixed reception from Reg Hardware readers, comparing it unfavourably with ‘regular’ USB hard drives. The latest incarnation is a little different and relies on …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But....

    Travel backup? Aren't you just as likely to lose the backup as the original?

    Back up at home, or over the net. If your accounts department will authorise this for you, they'll just as likely approve a 3G card....

  2. Alex
    Thumb Up

    a cheaper way...

    back up 16GB onto 4 DVDs = 80p, leaving you 79.20 to spend on something worthwhile... like beer.

    Even if you have to buy youself an external optical drive for your nobbook you'd still be quids in (or drunk).

  3. Kevin Whitefoot
    Thumb Down

    Over the odds for the SSD? Just over the odds altogether!

    A year ago I bought a Western Digital 320GB USB disk for the price you quote for the Clickfree 120GB. Why would anyone want the Clickfree product? WD also includes backup software. So all you get for the price is a slightly smaller box with 60% less space. And the SSD is stupid you can get perfectly normally USB flash drives for much less

    Also if all that is being done is a simple copy of changed files why does anyone need an application, a simple xCopy /s /d command will backup all your changed files just as easily.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Fake "security"

    > Clickfree’s password protection being the only security option, which should satisfy most users

    True, it will satisfy most users. And this is a really sad state of affairs. It gives people the illusion of safety without giving real safety.

    And it's such a stupid design decision, too. Once you've persuaded the user to type in a password every time, you may as well encrypt. And yet they couldn't be bothered to do that.

  5. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Never met a non-technical end user then?

    This is the perfect product for your average non-techie, who just doesn't understand. I would have recommended one for the daughter of a friend recently, had I known they existed, after replacing the hard disk in her laptop and explaining that the data on the old one had gone to the great gig in the sky, forever. As it is she got a USB pen drive, but I bet she doesn't back anything up onto it.

    GJC

  6. GettinSadda
    Paris Hilton

    Hang on...

    So I can just plug this into any laptop or PC or Mac and it will automatically back up all the contents without needing to install any software? And it fit neatly into a wallet?

    Sounds like an industrial spy's wet dream!

    Paris because, well, then you don't even need to be an industrial spy

  7. Tony Barnes
    Thumb Down

    How is it slower?

    Am I missing something here? SSD = fast... surely?

    If it had pulled over the files in a minute or two, then joy, but nearly half an hour for a couple of gig? Pathetic I'm afraid...

  8. Hayden Clark Silver badge
    Stop

    "Automatic"

    ... er, only on a PC that has autorun enabled. Which, nowadays, should be relatively few.

  9. techheadjames
    Thumb Up

    Missed the point

    @Kevin Whitefoot: I think you are missing the point. This is the easiest way to backup your data for the millions of people that have NEVER backed up in their life and in the case of the Traveler, it could be used for sales people who like to think they are tech savvy but don't know the first thing about computers. Plug this bad boy in, and then put it in your wallet. If your laptop gets stolen, or is comprimised in any way, then all is not lost.

    @ Anonymous Coward: I would not trust net backup ever. Do you really think you have any more control over anything that you post to the web? Backing up at home, I totally agree, and the clickfree hard drives are good for that too. I use one for my home network. Captures data from my wife's pc, my pc & laptop and my kids pcs and they never have to lift a finger.

  10. Kevin Whitefoot

    @techheadjames

    Sorry, I didn't miss the point, I failed to make my own clearly. I wasn't disagreeing that a simple, automatic backup solution is a good idea, merely that the price was very high for what was provided.

    And presumably those sales people work for a company with an IT department in which case the responsibility for backup should already be decided and fully automatic procedures in place. I think putting sensitive sales information in your wallet is probably a bad idea unless it is encrypted as mentioned by AC above because wallets are very frequently stolen. Of course most companies don't encrypt anything at all so I realize that this might take a bit more work to put in place.

    Anyway how does it know what to copy? It can hardly be fully automatic because most people's computers have more data on them than would fit, especially on the SSD version. So the user must inevitably have to specify what to copy. So it is definitely not as simple as plugging it in.

    The xCopy scripts that I mentioned are something that I demonstrate to my colleagues and even those who actively dislike computers manage to use them.

  11. Simon B
    Happy

    Use a memory stick - it's cheaper!

    16G for £80 ?!!! WTF is wrong with a memory stick? I bought an 8G one for about a tenner! and it's just as portable. Just a pointless gimmic.

  12. Simon Williams
    Boffin

    Points missed/ignored

    The quality of memory in an SSD is much higher and has a greater write-cycle tolerance than a USB drive (writing is balanced across the whole memory in the SSD, for a start). Where would the market for SSDs have come from, otherwise? A USB drive is no replacement for an SSD in this application.

    @Hayden Clark I think you'll find most PCs DO have autorun enabled. If they don't it's a one-off change before you start using something like the Clickfree.

    @Tony Barnes I agree. Thought it might be the USB 2 interface which was bottle-necking it, but it should bottle-neck the HD version as much. Queried it with the manufacturer, but they have no test results to confirm or refute ours. At least, none they were prepared to share.

    I think the implementation of the SSD version is flawed, particularly on speed, but making back-up REALLY simple is a *very good* idea. The comment about using xCopy /s /d highlights where most Reg Hardware readers come from. Fine if you know that a) Windows has a command prompt, b) how you get at it, c) That MSDOS provides a library of commands they used to use to control their computers 20 years ago and d) that those commands have a series of non-intuitive, single-character switches you can attach to modify the actions of the commands.

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