The disk drive giant, as part of an overhaul of its retail product line, is introducing new data-storage products that require a little less thought on the part of consumers–and a little less familiarity with some of the compatibility issues that should have been eradicated long ago.

People buying drives, for example, have typically needed to understand the formats that the devices use in talking to PCs and other products. Those formats are associated with different data-transfer speeds, as well as sockets and cable connectors for hooking gadgets together.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

People resort to all sorts of time-consuming methods for doing this. Some email the items to themselves. Others copy them to USB thumb drives and manually transfer them to each machine. Still others use Internet-based, or “cloud,” storage, uploading all their photos to a service like Flickr or Facebook, or using Web-based productivity programs like Google Docs (GOOG). And some use Web-based backup, storage or synchronization services.

Each of these methods, even the cloud-based ones, has limitations and frustrations. Some are complicated, or work only with certain kinds of files. Others work only when you have a Web connection, or don’t replicate your preferred folder structure. Still, others work OK with standard files and folders, but have trouble with specially arranged content, such as music that is organized in a jukebox program.

I’ve been testing a cloud-based service that attempts to solve these problems. It is called ZumoDrive, and it comes from a small company called Zecter Inc. A new version is due out this week that aims to add some capability and make the task simpler.

ZumoDrive mimics a standard physical hard disk, which can contain numerous folders and files. It works on Windows, Macintosh or Linux computers, and also comes in a more limited version for the Apple iPhone. It presents itself as a standard hard-disk icon on all your computers. But it’s actually a single, identical virtual hard disk that lives on the company’s servers, not on the computers themselves. The files it contains are rapidly streamed down to your machines when you need them.

I tested the service on a desktop Windows PC, a netbook, two Mac laptops and an iPhone. I generally liked ZumoDrive and found it easy to use, and pretty fast. But I ran into a few glitches, and it can be pricey. The new version will offer 2 gigabytes of storage free, but will cost a monthly or annual fee for more storage, ranging from $30 a year for 10 gigabytes to $800 a year for 500 gigabytes.

Also, like all cloud-based storage, ZumoDrive isn’t fully accessible when you’re offline. It caches, or automatically downloads, some recently used files, making them available offline. But you may want to open a document or play a song that is available only when you are online.

There have been online storage services for years, including some that could appear as desktop icons. In particular, ZumoDrive competes with somewhat similar services such as SugarSync and DropBox. But it’s different.

Unlike DropBox, it doesn’t require you to remember to place files in a single, special folder. You can link your existing folders to the ZumoDrive. And, unlike SugarSync, it doesn’t copy all your shared files to the hard disks of all your computers. It keeps the files in the cloud.

Compared with SugarSync, which I also like, ZumoDrive uses much less of your hard disk space, and does a better job with iTunes libraries. But SugarSync doesn’t require you to be online to use the files it synchronizes, though it also keeps a backup copy that you can access from the Web.

You don’t need to learn any special techniques to use ZumoDrive. Your computer sees the ZumoDrive as if it were a physical hard disk, so you can add and delete files to it in the normal ways. A program like Microsoft Word (MSFT) also sees it as a normal disk, and can open files from, or save them to, a ZumoDrive without a second thought.

And, because a ZumoDrive can be large without taking up much space on your local drive, it is especially nice for netbooks, which may offer relatively little storage. It also allows you to share folders with others, and encrypts the data you store on it, for security.

To use ZumoDrive, you first upload all your key stuff from your main computer. Then, once you install the small ZumoDrive program on your other devices, all those file names show up on your screen and can be fetched from the cloud when you like. You can add files and folders from the other computers as well. And you can also access your files via a Web site or an iPhone.

You can link folders on your computers to identical folders on your ZumoDrive, and they will stay in sync, so you can keep using the folder structure you’re used to, and it will be up-to-date on the ZumoDrive.

ZumoDrive understands how to handle and centralize your iTunes music library. In my tests, I uploaded an iTunes library of about 900 songs from a Mac at my home, and was able to play the songs on a Windows XP netbook that had no music stored locally.

I ran into some glitches and limitations, all of which the company says it is fixing. For instance, at first my netbook didn’t fetch all the iTunes songs.

But, all in all, ZumoDrive is a harbinger of the new world of cloud computing, and it is worth a look.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

A: The built-in backup program in your iMacs, called Time Machine, doesn’t require Apple’s Time Capsule product to work. It will work with almost any brand of directly connected external hard disk.

For instance, I back up my home iMac to a Western Digital drive that’s connected to it via a cable.

As for hard-drive life, it’s my experience that many seem to die sooner or later, especially if they are used heavily. I don’t know if the ones inside the Time Capsule are especially fragile. But, in just the past six months, I’ve had an external hard disk from G-Tech die on me; seen an internal hard disk on my home Dell die for a second time; and discovered that the hard disk on my colleague’s MacBook died.

One way to protect against the failure of a local backup drive is to consider, in addition to using an external disk, backing up your data to an online backup service like Mozy, Carbonite or SugarSync.

My Dell has Microsoft Vista but I can upgrade free to the new Windows 7. However, I was told my antivirus software won’t be compatible and my email will change—the program will no longer be “Windows Mail.” What do you recommend?

A: I regard Windows 7 as much better than Vista, but you are correct that many antivirus programs will require upgrading and Windows Mail will go away during the upgrade. You’ll have to install a new email program, such as the very similar “Windows Live Mail,” which can import your messages. So, the question really is one of trade-offs. If you’re satisfied with Vista, and would rather not perform these program replacements, you should stand pat. If you don’t like Vista, and are anxious to replace it, then the hassles you describe could be worth it.

Will Office 2003 work with the new Windows 7 operating system?

A: Microsoft, which makes both products, says the answer is yes, though I haven’t tested it.

Is it possible that the Verizon Motorola Droid, which doesn’t work in Europe, could be turned into a “world phone” that could work on European cellphone networks via an app somebody might develop?

A: An app wouldn’t be able to do that for the current Verizon Droid. It’s a hardware issue.

Verizon’s Droid, like most Verizon phones, is built to run on a type of network called CDMA that isn’t used in Europe or most other countries outside the U.S., which use a network standard called GSM.

To run on these networks, the Droid, or any other current CDMA phone, would need an entirely different radio, or two radios, one for each type of network.

Verizon offers a handful of so-called “world phones,” which have both kinds of radios inside, but the Droid isn’t one of them. Motorola may well make a new model with two radios, or even a model with one radio that would work overseas, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it did so.

What could be done with an app is to allow the Droid to make so-called VOIP phone calls via the Internet.

In fact, while I haven’t checked, there may already be such an app for Android—the Droid’s operating system—that would do so. But, in many cases, making such Internet phone calls requires the user to be in range of a Wi-Fi network. Some carriers don’t allow such calls to be made over their cellular networks.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

I haven’t tested campusbackup.org, whose Student Backup service copies an unlimited quantity of word-processing, spreadsheet, presentation and PDF files, once nightly, to a remote server for $50 a year. But there are other, more versatile options I have tested that, unlike Student Backup, copy photos and music and other types of files. These include MozyHome ($4.95 a month for unlimited storage, at mozy.com) and Carbonite ($55 a year for unlimited storage at carbonite.com). All three work with either Windows or Mac computers.

I read that importing the newly remastered Beatles CDs into iTunes and listening to them on a computer or portable player is like buying a masterpiece and staring at a photocopy of it. Any truth to this? Does importing really lose that much quality?

It depends on how sensitive an ear you have. In most cases, when you import a CD into iTunes or any other software jukebox program, you are converting the songs into a compressed file, such as an MP3 or AAC file. This saves a ton of space on your hard disk, but at least subtly diminishes quality. To an audiophile, that can make a big, negative difference, especially when you add the insult of listening to the music through iPod headphones or small computer speakers. To most of the rest of us, though—especially with rock, pop, urban or country music—it’s no big deal.

However, there is a compromise. If you don’t care about the songs taking up lots more space on your hard disk, iTunes will allow you to import them in a much less compressed format called Apple Lossless or an uncompressed format called WAV. You can choose which format to use in the iTunes Preferences settings. In the latest version of iTunes, called iTunes 9, this particular option is found under the General tab in Preferences, by clicking on the button called “Import Settings.”

Previously I had a Dell and Windows and used Family Tree Maker for genealogy records. Now that I’m an Apple owner, I find that Family Tree Maker does not work on an Apple, only Windows. What can I do about this?

It seems to me that you have three obvious options. If you still have your old Dell, you could crank it up again just for the purpose of running Family Tree Maker. Or, you could buy a boxed copy of Windows and install it on your Mac, which is fully capable of running Windows and Windows programs (assuming it’s an Intel-based Mac). Finally, you could switch to one of the native Mac-based genealogy programs and import your data from Family Tree Maker via the standard GEDCOM file format used in genealogy. One such program, called Reunion, includes specific instructions on importing data from Family Tree Maker on its “Top 10 Questions” page, at leisterpro.com.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

I am a longtime Palm user and am wondering if the new Palm Pre smart phone can run all the Palm OS programs I have become used to on my Treo.

The Pre is a clean break with Palm’s former operating system and previous hardware, and was designed as a platform for a new generation of software programs, or apps. It uses a new operating system called webOS, which wasn’t built to run old Palm OS programs.

However, there is a $30 program called “Classic” by a company called MotionApps (motionapps.com) that emulates the old platform and makes your sleek new Pre look and work like an old Palm device. It is intended to allow older programs to run on the Pre inside this virtual environment created by Classic. I haven’t tested it with older third-party programs and so I can’t say how well they work in this emulation mode.

But there are some caveats to this method. First, not all old Palm programs will run inside the Classic environment, or at least run well. The company lists those certified to work well on its Web site. Second, the old apps can’t activate certain features of the Pre, such as the camera. Third, Classic’s maker says it hasn’t yet figured out how to sync the old apps with a computer using Palm’s old, familiar HotSync process.

Can the Palm Pre be used as a modem for my laptop?

Sprint, the carrier that is launching the Pre, says the answer to this question is no. The company says its data plans for the Pre don’t permit that scenario.

I use Time Machine for my Mac, but I would also like the belt & suspenders security of manually backing up my invaluable iCal data on an external hard drive. How would I do that?

It’s easy. Just go into iCal’s File menu, select “Back up iCal…” and you can save a copy of your calendar to any drive connected to your computer, or even to any computer or external drive on a network, or over the Internet, that your Mac can access. To restore your calendar, just go to the same menu, but this time select “Restore iCal…” and then select your backup file.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Is it possible to download a YouTube or similar file to my computer?

Yes. One program that does this is TubeSock. It works on Mac and Windows, and creates a file you can keep for offline viewing on your computer. It creates the necessary formats for use on your iPhone or iPod, your Sony PSP or Palm Treo. The program works not only with videos on YouTube, but with those on some other sites. It’s available at stinkbot.com/Tubesock/, for $15. But while the makers of TubeSock believe their product is legal, as long as videos aren’t used for commercial distribution, Google (which owns YouTube) may not agree. A quick scan of YouTube’s terms of service reveals that the company sees most of its videos as intended solely for online streaming.

I have this thumb drive which I used to copy of the info from my old computer. I want to transfer all these files to my new computer. I want to transfer my 2007 Microsoft Outlook contacts and emails, and the My Documents folder. When I insert the drive into my new computer everything pops up, but how do I get it to transfer to the hard disk?

Your computer sees the portable drive just as it would an internal drive or folder, so you would just drag the folder or file icons from the portable drive into the folders of your choice on the hard disk. It’s just like copying folders and files from different places on your internal hard disk. Then, you can remove the portable drive, and the files and folders will be on your new computer. For the Outlook files, there’s one extra step, if you want them to actually appear in Outlook. You will have to use Outlook’s import function, found on the File menu, to incorporate them into Outlook’s own Mail and Contacts section.

Does the My Book World Edition networked hard disk you reviewed last week work with Apple’s built-in Time Machine backup software?

No. Western Digital, which makes the My Book, said it doesn’t, and, in my tests, Time Machine didn’t recognize the My Book as a possible backup drive. That’s one reason the company supplies its own backup software for the Mac, as well as for Windows. It’s likely that there is, or will be, some technical workaround, but, out of the box, this drive doesn’t work with Time Machine.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

But, unlike external drives that just plug into a single PC, these stand-alone, networked hard disks have tended to be techie products. Too often, they require a deeper familiarity with networking and file-sharing procedures than most folks possess. And some are aimed only at Windows or only at Macs, leaving out mixed-machine households.

Now, there’s a new networkable hard disk that, in my tests, proved so simple that anyone who can plug in a cable can use it, with no setup or knowledge, provided your computers have the most current operating systems. It works concurrently and seamlessly with both Windows PCs and Macs, and can even stream music to Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes program installed on either platform.

In addition, it can stream music, photos and videos to a TV, if you have a compatible add-on box attached, such as an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Its contents also can be accessed over the Internet from any major Web browser.

The product is the My Book World Edition, from Western Digital (WDC). This second version of the World Edition sells for $230 for a model with a capacity of one terabyte (roughly 1,000 gigabytes) and $450 for two terabytes. It’s available from various retailers, or at westerndigital.com.

Western Digital’s new My Book World Edition

The My Book World Edition isn’t flawless. Its Internet remote-access feature isn’t great, and it’s more complicated to use on computers running older operating systems, like Windows XP or Apple’s Tiger. It’s also sluggish with older PC hardware. But for its basic functions — backup, centralized file storage and sharing, streaming of music and other media — the My Book World Edition is simple and speedy on relatively new computers with current operating systems.

I tested the My Book on my home network, using several Macs running Apple’s Leopard operating system, as well as Windows PCs from Dell (DELL), Sony (SNE) and Lenovo. Some of the latter were running Vista, some XP and one was using the prerelease version of the new Windows 7 operating system. I also tested it with an Xbox 360.

To start, I just plugged the My Book into an electrical outlet and connected it to my home network’s router with a standard networking (Ethernet) cable. Almost immediately, all of the Macs, and all of the Windows PCs running Vista or Windows 7, displayed an icon called MyBookWorld, making it appear like a regular hard disk on the computer.

Opening the icon revealed two folders, one called Download and one called Public. The latter folder contained three subfolders: Shared Music, Shared Pictures and Shared Videos.

Without installing drivers or any other software, I could copy files onto the My Book from the Windows PCs and Macs. I copied some Microsoft Word and PDF documents, plus several hundred songs, photos and videos. This copying process went quickly, almost as quickly as with a directly connected hard disk. And I was able to open, display or play the files on the My Book on all of my test machines, Mac and Windows.

Then, I opened Apple’s iTunes on all my test machines, and discovered a MyBookWorld entry on the left-hand side, from which I could play the songs on the shared drive. In the case of songs from the iTunes store, however, the machine had to be registered to my iTunes account.

Next, I installed Western Digital’s backup program on several of the computers. It comes in Windows and Mac versions, works automatically, and allows you, via a simple interface, to select which folders or which types of files you want backed up automatically. It worked fine.

For my tests, I then hooked up an Xbox to my TV set, navigated to the media section of the Xbox, selected My Book from a list as my media source, and was able to play on the TV all music, display all photos and watch any videos that were compatible with the Xbox.

I also tried accessing my files over the Internet from remote PCs and Macs, using a free service Western Digital offers called MioNet that merely requires a Web browser. It worked on Windows and Mac, but it was so slow as to be painful, so I would only count on it in emergencies.

I also don’t recommend buying the My Book for use with older PCs running Windows XP. With XP, the shared drive isn’t immediately visible; you have to install the included software to get it to show up. That’s not a big deal on a newer XP computer, but on an older XP laptop I tried, that installation was painfully slow, and so was using the My Book.

When used with modern operating systems, though, the My Book World Edition is the simplest, speediest networkable hard disk I’ve tried.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090401/network-hard-disk-by-western-digital-offers-easy-backup/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090224/lost-cellphone-your-carrier-has-your-backup/ http://allthingsd.com/20090224/lost-cellphone-your-carrier-has-your-backup/#comments Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:22:02 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/20090224/lost-cellphone-your-carrier-has-your-backup/ By the time you’ve left your cellphone in a taxi or dropped it into a pot of soup, it’s too late. All those phone numbers you had at your finger tips — your best friend, your boss, your mom — are gone. (Well, maybe you’ll remember Mom’s.)

Some companies have tried to soothe backup concerns with gadgets like the $50 Backup-Pal from Advanced Wireless Solutions LLC, or wireless services like Skydeck. But for many for people, it’s just as easy to ignore the risk.

Cellphone carriers caught on to this problem, and all of them now offer solutions that make it a cinch for you to automatically back up your cellphone contacts. It doesn’t hurt these companies to know that if your contacts are saved with one of them, you might be deterred from switching to another. Indeed, whenever a customer replaces his or her cellphone with one from the same carrier, a backed-up address book can be wirelessly loaded onto it in minutes.

But the details on how each carrier handles or transfers contacts can be a little dicey. This week I spoke to Verizon Wireless (VZ), T-Mobile, AT&T (T) and Sprint (S) to get the lowdown on how these cellphone backup services work. Is a phone’s address book backed up free of charge, or do users pay a monthly fee? Can people access and edit their stored contacts, and can they transfer these contacts to new cellphones or different carriers, entirely? Will carriers charge users to move contacts to a new phone? How often is the cellphone’s address book synchronized, and can someone specifically set what time this occurs? The responses yielded some interesting information that customers may not know.

Each carrier has a different name for its service, though they all do roughly the same thing: wirelessly tap into the phone’s address book on a regularly set schedule to back up its contents. This backed-up data can be accessed online via each carrier’s Web site, and there, content can be typed in at a PC and pushed to the phone, a much easier option than using numeric keypads to enter names.

Verizon uses Backup Assistant, a free service as long as users are registered online at My Verizon (MyVerizon.com); otherwise it costs $1.99 a month. T-Mobile’s service (my.t-mobile.com) is also free, and works on the majority of phones currently sold by the company, but not all older models. Its service was originally called T-Mobile Address Book, but is now called Mobile Backup, the same name used by AT&T for its service (mobilebackup.att.com).

AT&T charges customers $2 a month for backup. Sprint’s backup offering (sprint.com/services) is a bit more confusing in that it has three types of service depending on your phone type: Wireless Backup is the name of its $2 monthly service that applies to a majority of the carrier’s phones; for six of its newest phones, Sprint Mobile Sync, a free service, will work; for Nextel phones, MyNextel Address Book is available, and it costs $5 a month.

Wireless synchronization occurs according to a set schedule that users can determine. Verizon backs up data daily and lets people choose between the morning, afternoon, evening or late night. AT&T lets its customers set Mobile Backup to work daily or once a week, and they can set the specific syncing time down to the minute. T-Mobile’s Mobile Backup and Sprint’s three backup services work automatically: Every time a phone’s address book changes, a sync is initiated.

These syncs occur unobtrusively, and don’t require any action on the part of the user after the initial setup, nor do syncs incur any extra fees like text-messaging charges.

However, if you’re planning to switch from one carrier to another and you’d like to take your contacts with you, these carriers — unsurprisingly — don’t make it easy. Verizon suggests printing out contacts prior to disconnecting your line with them. T-Mobile says its service is exclusive to its users and doesn’t give people a way to export their data. Sprint allows users of Sprint Mobile Sync and MyNextel Address Book to export their contacts into a common type of format called a .CSV data file, which allows the data to be imported into an application like Microsoft Outlook. AT&T doesn’t currently allow exporting of contacts, but says it will enable exports to .CSV sometime this summer.

All carriers will help you synchronize your old phone’s saved address book onto a new phone — as long as you’re buying the new phone from them and your old phone was from the same carrier. Verizon will help you with this free if you use Backup Assistant; if not, they’ll charge $10 to move your contacts over from an old phone. T-Mobile and AT&T say they will move a customer’s contacts from one phone to another for free, even using older phones that weren’t originally synced to Mobile Backup. Sprint says it supports migration between phones using Wireless Backup and Sprint Mobile Sync at no additional cost.

So instead of keeping your fingers crossed that you never lose your cellphone and all the numbers stored on it, talk to your carrier about what it offers in the way of backup services. You might be pleasantly surprised to learn about a free or low-cost service that works automatically and will pay you back in spades should you need to replace your cellphone. But, if you want to make your data portable across carriers, you may be out of luck.

Edited By Walter S. Mossberg

• Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find this and other columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://walt.allthingsd.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090224/lost-cellphone-your-carrier-has-your-backup/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090114/palm-pres-new-operating-system/ http://allthingsd.com/20090114/palm-pres-new-operating-system/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:44:02 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/20090114/palm-pres-new-operating-system/ Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

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Does the new Palm Pre smart phone use the traditional Palm operating system and the many programs that have been written for it?

Palm’s Pre, which is due out later this year to compete with the iPhone and the BlackBerry, doesn’t use this older software, which was once the best smart-phone operating system, but has grown stale. It uses an entirely new operating system called the Palm webOS, which will have to attract developers willing to write new programs for it. It is a clean break from Palm’s previous hardware and software.

How does the Clickfree computer backup system you covered last week compare with Apple’s Time Machine or online backup services like Mozy or Carbonite?

Clickfree simplifies the chore of backing up files to an external hard disk. However, as I noted in the review, it doesn’t back up your whole hard disk, it doesn’t work automatically in the background, and it doesn’t create a backup physically distant from your computer.

Time Machine, which is built into the Macintosh operating system, automatically backs up your entire computer in the background and includes a very easy method for recovering files. It works with external hard disks. But it doesn’t work on Windows PCs, and it doesn’t create a remote backup over the Internet.

Mozy and Carbonite are online backup solutions. Their advantages are that they work unattended and create offsite backups. But they aren’t intended to back up an entire computer, they don’t create a local backup, and they carry service fees.

Does my 13-inch MacBook come with the capability to view PowerPoint files?

No. While Macs come out of the box with the ability to view and create files in the Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF formats, they don’t come with a PowerPoint viewer. In order to view (and create) PowerPoint files on a Mac, your best bet is to buy the Macintosh version of Microsoft Office, which includes PowerPoint itself. There are other methods as well. For instance, Apple’s own lower-priced iWork suite can also open PowerPoint files and create files in the PowerPoint format. And some Web-based office programs, like Google Docs, allow you to view PowerPoint files on Macs.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online free of charge at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090114/palm-pres-new-operating-system/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20090107/clickfree-backs-up-your-files-easily-so-youre-not-toast/ http://allthingsd.com/20090107/clickfree-backs-up-your-files-easily-so-youre-not-toast/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:24:02 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090107/clickfree-backs-up-your-files-easily-so-youre-not-toast/ If you got a new computer over the holidays, you’re probably focused right now on enjoying all its cool features, or savoring how much faster it is than the old warhorse it replaced. The last thing you want to dwell upon is the chore of backing up your data.

Still, backing up your files is important. Hard disks fail, and computers get lost or stolen. When those things happen, files that aren’t backed up can be lost forever, or may be recoverable only for a high price. Unfortunately, the process of performing backups and recovering files can be a cumbersome task.

So, this week, I’ve been testing a product that claims to make the process dead simple. In fact, its maker claims that the gadget, called Clickfree, is “Easier than making toast!”

I didn’t find it to be quite that simple, and it has a couple of important downsides. But Clickfree pretty much worked as advertised in my tests. It is an automated way to back up your important files, as long as you remember to use it regularly.

Clickfree is a compact, specially designed external hard disk that automatically backs up your key files — every time you plug it into your PC — without requiring you to install or launch any software. You don’t even have to press a button. Every time you plug it in, a window pops up on your screen that counts down from 24. When it reaches zero, the Clickfree drive starts copying a staggering array of the most common and important files on your computer. After the first backup, subsequent sessions copy only new or changed files.

The key trick behind Clickfree is that the backup software is built into the external drive itself, and launches whenever the drive is plugged in. It doesn’t reside on your computer.

The drives come in a variety of sizes, from a 120 gigabyte version that costs $90, to a new 1 terabyte version that costs $230. Each drive can be used to back up multiple PCs. They can be ordered at goclickfree.com.

And Clickfree’s maker, a Toronto company called Storage Appliance Corp., has just introduced a new product for people who already own an external hard disk. It’s a special $60 cable with built-in circuitry, called the Transformer, that makes your own drive behave like a Clickfree drive.

Clickfree doesn’t back up your whole hard disk, or your programs. But it does back up over 400 common types of data files, without requiring you to make any choices or configure any settings. It captures email, office documents, photos, music, videos, financial data and more. If you like, you can remove or add file types.

Once the files are backed up, Clickfree presents you with a screen that organizes the files it has collected by category and type. From this screen, you can restore any or all of the files on the same computer, or you can move the drive to another computer and copy them to that machine.

The Clickfree software also allows you to view, or browse through, your backed-up files, print or email photos, and to perform other tasks, as long as the drive is plugged in.

Clickfree originally was designed only for Windows PCs, but the company this week plans to introduce new models that can be used to back up Macintosh computers.

I tested both the Clickfree drive and the new Clickfree Transformer cable, using a drive I already owned, on multiple Windows computers, some running Windows XP and some running Windows Vista. The products worked properly on all of the machines but one, a Vista laptop from Sony. Clickfree’s maker guessed that the Sony was one of the rare machines that require the drive to use an external power supply. It said it supplies such power supplies free to users who need one.

Otherwise, Clickfree worked well, even on a virtual Windows XP machine running on a Mac. Backup was smooth and fast, and I was able to restore files easily, either to the same PC from which they came, or to other machines. I was even able to move files from a Windows PC to a Mac running only Apple’s (AAPL) operating system, not a virtual copy of Windows.

The sole Clickfree function that consistently failed for me was a relatively minor one: a feature that allows you to upload photos directly from the Clickfree software to Facebook.

Unlike a toaster, Clickfree doesn’t work instantly the first time you use it. The product has to install drivers so it can be recognized, and in some cases I had to reboot the computer to complete this process. After that, it was smooth sailing in my tests.

But Clickfree has two big downsides. It doesn’t work constantly in the background, so you have to remember to use it. The company now includes a program that reminds you to back up, but you still have to get out the Clickfree drive and do it. The other downside is that Clickfree doesn’t create an offsite backup of your files. The company is planning to add online backups this year.

Still, Clickfree is one of the simplest and most effective backup products I’ve tried.

Find all of Walt Mossberg’s columns and videos online, free, at the All Things Digital Web site, walt.allthingsd.com. Email him at mossberg@wsj.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090107/clickfree-backs-up-your-files-easily-so-youre-not-toast/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081216/an-apple-netbook-at-macworld-2009/ http://allthingsd.com/20081216/an-apple-netbook-at-macworld-2009/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:47:20 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=9717

There are some customers which we chose not to serve. We don’t know how to make a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that. But we can continue to deliver greater and greater value to those customers that we choose to serve. And there’s a lot of them. We’ve seen great success by focusing on certain segments of the market and not trying to be everything to everybody. So I think you can expect us to stick with that winning strategy and continue to try to add more and more value to those products in those customer bases we choose to serve.”

– Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Oct. 2008

Perhaps Macworld Expo 2009 will have its “one more thing” after all.

In a note to clients this morning, Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research speculates that Apple (AAPL) will indeed launch a new product category at Macworld in early January. A netbook designed to leverage Apple’s design prowess and its online delivery system as well. “[The device] will provide Web access, email, media playing, and essential applications at a single low price,” Gottheil writes. “Computer beginners will be able to start using it quickly and easily. Users will have fewer questions, problems, conflicts and security breaches, as the device will be less intimidating than both PCs and Macs. As with the iPhone, iTunes and the App Store will offer an array of content, applications and games. As with the iPhone, the software can be rebuilt from the App Store. With an optional online backup service, the entire device can be restored…. Because all applications are delivered through the iTunes App Store, Apple will maintain sustained relationships with users, making it easier to upsell and cross-sell to existing customers. TBR believes Apple will make online services like MobileMe increasingly attractive to all customers, but purchasers of the new Apple device may find its simplicity especially appealing.”

Now, I know Gottheil’s the guy who said “Apple doesn’t need Jobs anymore”–blasphemy! But the scenario he lays out above makes quite a bit of sense, doesn’t it?

If such a device is indeed uncrated at Macworld, Gottheil expects it will arrive at market around midyear at prices beginning at $599–$99 more than the $500 computer Apple CEO Steve Jobs claims the company doesn’t know how to make….

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081216/an-apple-netbook-at-macworld-2009/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20080910/buying-a-pc-with-an-amd-processor/ http://allthingsd.com/20080910/buying-a-pc-with-an-amd-processor/#comments Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:32:02 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/20080910/buying-a-pc-with-an-amd-processor/ Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

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If I buy a PC with an AMD processor instead of an Intel one, will I run into any compatibility issues with common software like Vista or Office 2007?

No, as long as the AMD processor, and/or its accompanying graphics and other chips, called a “chip set,” are rated as being able to handle the graphics in the version of Vista you are buying. Each chip company makes some low-end models that handle certain tasks more slowly than their mainstream or top-of-line models. And gamers are often particular about which chip sets they buy. But, in my experience, roughly comparable AMD and Intel processors and chip sets are equally compatible with common software like Office and Windows.

I have been using the Netscape Web browser for years. I am interested in shifting to using the Firefox browser. How do I transfer my extensive list of book marks from Netscape to Firefox?

Firefox will import your Netscape bookmarks automatically during the installation process, just as it can automatically import bookmarks from other browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

Friends who use Macs tell me they have a removable backup device that backs up their entire hard drive, including programs. Is there something similar for PCs?

You appear to be referring to Time Capsule, which is an Apple hardware product that combines a hard disk and a wireless base station and is meant to work with the Mac’s built-in Time Machine automated backup feature. The answer is that there are many backup drives for Windows PCs, and that lots of them work with Macs as well. All the major hard-disk makers sell external hard disks that connect to a PC either directly, or over a network, and which come with relatively simple backup programs. Some of these programs will do complete, automated backups of everything on your PC, including applications. Even Apple’s Time Capsule can be used to back up files from Windows PCs, though it doesn’t come with Windows backup software, and setting it up for Windows is slightly trickier than doing so on a Mac.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox and my other columns online free at the All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080910/buying-a-pc-with-an-amd-processor/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080626/reporting-digital-map-errors/ http://allthingsd.com/20080626/reporting-digital-map-errors/#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:01:00 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/20080626/reporting-digital-map-errors/ Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

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All of the major digital maps contain erroneous information about our street in Virginia, and don’t even show several new streets near our home that were built over three years ago. I infer that there is one source of cartography used by these Web services, and also by my Garmin navigation system. But I can’t find out what it is. How can an individual get something like this corrected?

There are actually two main companies that make the underlying maps that most of the navigation-device makers and digital-map sites use. One is called Tele Atlas (TLATF.PK), and one is called Navteq (NVT). Garmin (GRMN) uses Navteq. Each mapping company has a Web page where users can report errors or changes.

For Navteq’s error-reporting Web page, go to navteq.com and click on “Map Reporter.” For Tele Atlas’ similar page, go to teleatlas.com and click on “Report Map Changes.”

In reading your review of the new Gogo in-flight wireless Internet system, I wondered about two things: Does it support “virtual private networks,” and when will it be installed on Amtrak trains?

While I didn’t test this, Gogo’s maker, Aircell, says that VPNs, which are used by many big companies, do indeed work over the service.

As for Amtrak, the Gogo system wouldn’t work for trains, because its antennas point up, into the sky, and don’t cover ground locations like railroad tracks. However, if you are on an Amtrak train in an area where cellphone towers are near the tracks, and your laptop computer or cellphone can pick up cellular data signals, you can already surf the Web and do email and other online tasks on the train.

In fact, I happen to be writing this column on an Amtrak Acela train between Washington and New York, and, using a Verizon (VZ) laptop card, my laptop is able to access the Internet with only occasional lapses.

Because of problems I had with my computer, I lost my Internet Explorer favorites. How can I save them so I can easily restore them if they get wiped out again?

There are several methods. You should, of course, be backing up all your key data, including your browser favorites or bookmarks, regularly, either to a local external disk, or to an online backup service. That would create a fairly fresh backup of your favorites. You could also use one of several Web sites that specialize in hosting, and sharing, bookmarks or favorites. They allow you to add bookmarks to your online list as you surf, and also to upload and download the favorites and bookmarks you keep locally on your computer. The best known of these sites is probably del.icio.us, which is at http://del.icio.us.

The simplest method, however, is probably to just export your favorites to a file and save it in your Documents folder, on your desktop, or on a USB thumb drive. You can then use this file to restore your favorites in case of disaster. To do this in the latest version of Microsoft (MSFT) IE, click on the “Add to Favorites” button, select “Import and Export,” click “Next,” then click “Export Favorites” and walk through the steps that follow. Detailed instructions for all versions of IE are at: support.microsoft.com/kb/211089.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

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