Hands-On: Clickfree Transformer SE

In the world of marketing straplines, “Easier than making toast” is one that you wouldn’t expect to find on many products – with the exception of pre-buttered sliced bread, or a breakfast delivery service perhaps. So it’s a surprise to see the claim writ large on a consumer electronics product, namely the Clickfree Transformer SE, a USB dongle which converts any external hard drive or iPod/iPhone into a convenient, automatic backup device.

That said, we looked the the SE’s predecessor back in January and were won over by its simplicity – a product that even your mum could use to back-up her files and folders. The original Transformer was solely for use with USB hard drives – the new SE builds on the original platform, being designed to take advantage of the thousands of gigabytes of unused storage available on iPods and  iPhones being used around the globe.

The premise is simple, attach one end of the Transformer SE to your computer’s USB port (Macs and PCs are supported), and the other end to a USB hard drive or iPod/iPhone (using Apple’s USB/iPod connector cable). The Transformer SE will scan your PC, and back up your files and folders (note that applications and your Operating System is not backed up – this is data only) using the unused space on the storage device – your existing data, music, videos and photos will be untouched.

What’s in the Box?

The Clickfree Transformer SE is packed in a (thankfully) easy to open blister pack containing the device itself, and a short Quickstart guide.

Backing up With the Clickfree Transformer SE

Upon inserting the Transformer into a spare USB sport, a small blue LED illuminates on the dongle, and after a quick driver self-install, you’re invited to connect your iPhone, iPod or external hard drive to the other end of the Transformer.

Once connected, you’ll have a quick EULA to accept, before starting your back-up. I know, there’s no EULA required for making toast. Or bread drivers to install. Let’s keep going…

After a 30 second countdown, the Transformer will scan your computer’s hard drive for data, categorises it by file type and presents a list for you to include or exclude in your back-up.

If folder trees are your thing, rather than file type, the “Browse Files” tab is your friend, allowing you to include or exclude specific files from your back-up. The Search Files Tab does exactly what it says.

Once you’ve selected the files you wish to be backed up, click Next, and the back-up begins. Our test back-up of around 100MB of data took a little over 2 minutes, so it’s reasonably snappy.

If any of your files are in use during the back-up, Transformer will leave those files until the end, and then go back and fetch them.

Once the backup is complete, you’re presented with a summary of what’s been saved.

That’s basically it for the basic back-up feature of the product – fast, friendly and very simple to use. Backups can be easily deleted from within the application, and your music, videos and photos on the iPod/iPhone are not touched.

Other Features

Before we dig into other features of the Clickfree Transformer, one major design issue to note – the user interface is a fixed size, and not appropriately sized for use with Netbooks – note the bottom of the application window hiding behind the Windows 7 Taskbar. This prevents you accessing the File Restore features of the product on screens that are less than 800 pixels high in resolution. A similar issue occurred with HP’s SimpleSave hard drive we reviewed in August – clearly there’s still a few companies out there who either haven’t heard of Netbooks, or need to improve their user interface testing. Schoolboy error.

Restoring files from your iPod/iPhone using the Clickfree Transformer SE is as simple as backing them up in the first place. Plug in the Transformer, and your previously backed up files will be listed – again, you can choose to view by file type or using a folder tree (using the Advanced button to bring up the top tabs).

Once you’ve selected the files to restore, you can choose to restore them right back to their original location, or to a folder of your choosing. A handy desktop icon is installed on the desktop which will navigate you straight to your newly restored files.

Much like back-up, file restore is a simple affair – it just works. An optional Backup Assistant can be configured to automatically back up your files regularly against a user configurable timeline – if your device is not connected, you’ll receive a reminder.

iPod Music Transfer

One bonus feature from the Clickfree Transformer SE is the ability to transfer music directly from the iPod/iPhone to another computer. Any files that have DRM will have to be re-authorised on the computer you’ve transferred the music to.

Summary

The Clickfree Transformer SE has all the makings of a simple, friendly product to help users backup important files to an external hard drive at home, or more interestingly, to their iPod/iPhone whilst on the move.

The product works well but is let down by a couple of design issues – compatibility with Netbooks has been mentioned above. Secondly, the hardware has an issue in detecting an iPod/iPhone is attached if you connect it to the Transformer before plugging it into the PC. Both issues are niggly, but should have been nailed before the product left the test lab. Hopefully both can been corrected in a future software update.

Design issues aside, the Transformer SE builds well on the features of the previous generation, with the added convenience of using your iPod/iPhone as a mobile backup device. Clever stuff, but easier than making toast? I’ll let you decide…