USB stick makes easy automatic backups to discs
August 27, 2009 By Craig CrossmanThere's really no excuse for not backing up your computer these days. Used to be that making a backup was a fairly complex task. But today's backup offerings make it pretty much a no-brainer. In the recent months, I've written about several of the newest backup methods and products that make backing up a breeze. I'd like to add one more I recently discovered that adds an interesting twist to the job.
Normally, most backups are made to another hard drive. External hard drives are fairly inexpensive, easy to connect, fast and easy to detach and store in a safe location. Backing up hard drive data to CD and DVD discs is another viable alternative but in the past has proven to be not as popular. That's because the larger capacity hard drives typically require more than one disc to complete the job and keeping track of multiple discs during the process can be a bit confusing. However the new DVD Transformer from Clickfree makes the entire backup operation to optical media a snap.
When you are ready to backup your computer's hard drive, all you need is a stack of writable CD or DVD discs and the DVD Transformer, which looks exactly like one of those popular flash drive sticks. Just plug the DVD Transformer into any available USB port and that's just about everything you have to do. The DVD Transformer's built-in software launches and begins to look at every kind of data file on your hard drive. After that, you are presented with a screen that lets you choose everything, specific files or the kinds of files you want to copy such as jpeg and mp3. From there, the backup process is completely automatic.
Your computer's CD or DVD drive will automatically open. You just insert the first optical disc, close the drive and the DVD Transformer begins burning all of the files to that disc. If the disc fills up, the drive will open or eject the burned disc and prompt you to insert the next one. The screen will also display a unique name and number of the ejected disc so that you can write that information to the disc's label. This process continues until all of the hard drive's data is completely backed up. At that point, the DVD Transformer will display what was copied and end the task.
The last step is to simply remove the DVD Transformer from the USB drive. The DVD Transformer window will close and nothing from the DVD Transformer will remain on the computer's hard drive. What you'll be left with is a stack of CD or DVD discs that contain all of your hard drive's data. It really doesn't get any easier than this.
The DVD Transformer works with both the Windows and Macintosh OS X and sells for $39.99. Given the inexpensive costs of burnable DVDs these days, backing up your precious data to optical media is pretty much the cheapest way to make a backup. And with the DVD Transformer, it's now pretty much the easiest way as well.
More information: http://www.clickfree.com
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(c) 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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CWFlink - Sep 07, 2009
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This is a miniscule idea. Every removable device can be configured to launch software, with permission, when the device is connected. Could just as well be a CD you slip into your PC to start the backup. NOTHING in this product, as described in the article is unique or new.- report abuse
Jun 04, 2007 |
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