Clickfree Traveller
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
The Traveller is designed for business travellers who want data safe and protected away from their laptop, especially when away from the home or office; it comes in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities.
I tested the 16GB version, which performed the same backup data to my iPhone (it picked up the settings from the installation of the Clickfree Transformer SE) but this was done in a much faster 9 minutes, so just less than a quarter of the time it took the Transformer to do a the same 1GB backup to my 32GB iPhone 3GS (40 minutes).
Restoring the same files was even faster – only 3 minutes. Oh, wait – this time it was plugged directly into the MacBook Pro’s USB port and not into the hub.
So I reset it and ran the same backup again, and into the Mac’s port, not the hub: this time it took just five minutes for the 1GB of data. That’s almost twice as fast.
Lesson
Use your Mac’s direct USB port if you want much faster service!
Mounted
It connects to your Mac (or PC) with a slim USB connector on a ribbon that swings out from one side, meaning that once it’s rotated back in, the device is very space efficient.
When you plug it in, the Clickfree software boots and backs up the files you set – conveniently for me, the settings picked up from yesterday's trial of the Transformer SE and I could time exactly the same file transfer.
Unlike the Transformer, the Traveller mounts on your desktop as a volume (called CF_STORAGE), meaning you can open it up as per usual and take things off.There are several files on here already, the auto-run software and associated files for Mac and PC – I suggest you leave these alone.
If you want to find your backups, they are buried in a folder called ‘S’ for some reason, and there’s an S folder in there and another S folder in there and so on; six levels down you’ll find your backup, which seems a bit confusing and unnecessary, and there are more levels beneath this too, so I guess this is the structure the Clickfree software requires to compare unbacked up files with backed up – but who knows what programming this represents?
And once you’re in there, I’m not even sure that’s actually your data.
Anyway, the easier way to manage all this is not directly in the Finder but via the Clickfree app’s options, which let you restore, delete etc.
One thing I like about the Clickfree software is that when you press Close, it not only quits but unmounts the volume, so you can just yank it out. This may only save you a few seconds in actual time, but it’s convenient and saves mousing around – good for when you’re sitting in a plane or train, for example.
But I don’t like the way I can only back up Microsoft Word documents as a default (as well as emails, photos and other categories). I do most of my writing in Nisus. But you can add any folder you like by pressing the Advanced button.
Conclusion — works as advertised, very portable, quick
What’s great — extremely pocketable and convenient
What’s not — the ribbon connector doesn’t look like it would last through hundred of connections and disconnections, but it’s not designed for heavy use, just for those occasional, convenient backups.
Needs — a mover who doesn’t want the loss or damage to a laptop deleting all their vital data.
8.5/10
What — The Clickfree Traveler is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB and priced from $134.
Available from — Noel Leeming.
Contact — Clickfree NZ
