AllThingsD » Clickfree

Upgrading to Windows 7 From Vista

Walter S. Mossberg — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:56:02 +0000

There’s no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers. Everybody has questions about them, and we aim to help.

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 have a PC with Windows XP, which I bought because my computer guru said to stay away from Vista. I read your column saying upgrading from XP to the new Windows 7 will be much more cumbersome than doing so from Windows Vista. So, what should I do now? Upgrade to Vista for a while so I can then move more smoothly to 7? Or wait, buy a separate Windows 7 computer in the fall, and just transfer my files and applications from the XP computer?

Putting budget considerations aside, I think the latter course would make more sense. The new machine with Windows 7 preloaded will probably give you smoother performance than one you upgraded twice to new operating systems in a matter of months. But, bear in mind that you will have to reinstall all your applications on the new Windows 7 computer, and that, depending on the terms of the applications’ licenses, you might even have to buy new copies. On the other hand, if you do the chain of upgrades, and don’t buy a new machine, you may be able to avoid this application problem, or at least much of it.

I appreciated your review of the Clickfree automatic backup drive. Does the backup it creates include the various folders and subfolders for data such as photos, or does it just create a huge single list?

The Clickfree software is primarily designed to back up, display and restore your files by their types — photos, music, text, email, spreadsheets, etc. Once it has performed a backup it lets you view and restore your files by these types. However, it will display the tree of all your folders and allow you to specify where it should search for these files. It also allows you to back up and restore entire folders, such as your My Documents folder, regardless of their contents. Detailed information, including a downloadable user manual, is available in the Support section of clickfree.com.

I am planning to buy one of the products you recently reviewed — a Western Digital My Book — and attach it directly to a port on my Internet router. Can I install antispyware and antivirus programs on the drive? If not, how will the data on this drive be protected?

Nothing is perfectly secure. The bad guys are clever, and you never say never. However, since this product isn’t an actual PC running Windows, viruses and spyware programs can’t likely run directly on it. Still, if one of your computers contains malicious software, and it can see the contents of the network drive, then the data on the drive could be endangered. I know of no way to install or run security programs on the drive. But the security software on your PC may protect the drive, if it is able to handle external drives across a network. Also, the firewall built into your network router will help. The product has some security measures built in, such as encrypting files when you use the optional feature that allows you to access the drive’s contents across the Internet.

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.

Palm Pre's New Operating System

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:44:02 +0000

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.

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.

Clickfree Backs Up Your Files Easily, So You're Not Toast

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:24:02 +0000

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!”

[ See post to watch video ]

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.