| Manufacturer: Clickfree | Product: Clickfree Transformer |
| Price: $59.99 | Web: http://www.goclickfree.com/ |
Whilst you may have your computer backups sewn up courtesy of a home server, one of the most intriguing products to come through the doors at WGS for a while if the Clickfree Transformer – a simple USB dongle which promises to convert any USB External Drive into a full backup solution – i.e. no need to install and configure any backup software – just connect the drive to the computer using the dongle and you’re good to go.
The Transformer landed on the doormat a few days ago, so let’s give it a whirl!
What’s in the Box?
Well, it’s a box with a groovy looking USB cable, with a dongle at one end that’s a little larger than a USB memory stick. Black and purple too, which will please any goths in need of a backup solution.
Using the Clickfree Transformer
To use the Transformer, you simply plug it into one of your computer’s USB ports, then plug any External USB hard drive into the USB socket in the dongle-end of the Transformer. We used an old 320Gb Western Digital hard drive we had available.
When you plug in the drive, you’ll get the drive loading message as usual:
Then the Windows AutoPlay dialog will pop up asking you to start the ClickFree Transformer application (okay, so now we’ve learned it’s not strictly click free – at least pre-configuration)
Accept the EULA….
..and it’s off! Countdown to backup…
First scanning emails and searching for files on your computer:
Then backing them up!
Backing up my notebook (with around 7Gb of data) took about an hour. Each time the Transformer is used, only new or changed files are backed up, so subsequent backups are much quicker.
When completed, you’re given a neat summary of what’s been backed up.
The application ignores your system files and just goes after your data – you can configure what file types should be backed up easily from the Transformer’s options menu.
You’re also provided with a suite of options to work with the files that have been backed up, including a photo browser and sharing links to Facebook and MySpace, a music player, file searching application and more. It’s actually quite a powerful suite of applications if you want to work directly off your backups.
Restoring files can be done easily from within the Transformer application, at a file, folder or at a file category level. The application allows you to quickly search for a particular file, or browse through files based on their file type – you can also navigate your way through a full folder tree if preferred.
Summary
In essence, ClickFree Transformer turns any boring old external hard drive into a smarter backup and file management device that’s fun and friendly to use.
There’s no fancy backup shenanigans like single instance storage or data redundancy here, but if you’re really terrible at backing up your computers and haven’t yet invested in a home server or NAS solution, the ClickFree Transformer is a quick and convenient way of ensuring manual backups are as painless as possible. If you are enlightened in the way of the backup, the ClickFree Transformer would make a great liitle tech gift for your more reckless family and friends.
