It will take awhile for the drive to backup your computer the first time you plug it in, but from there it will only sync new and altered files that can cut your backup time to 5 minutes or less depending on the size of the drive. Cleverly, files you delete from the host computer don't disappear on the Clickfree, just in case you might need that file at a later time. Another convenient feature is that you can maintain up to 15 different backup profiles on a single Clickfree drive with different settings for each one. The onboard software organizes and separates each profile and lets you restore individual files or the whole onto a computer. One small drawback is that whatever data you restore is dumped into a single file folder on the receiving drive. More sophisticated backup software returns the individual files to their original location, but with the Clickfree drive, so you'll have to manually reorganize your folders.
Cost per GB
We're surprised to see such a low price for all the software perks you get with the Clickfree. As you can see from the chart below, it's not exactly the cheapest nor the most expensive drive money can buy, but rather falls in dead center at a reasonable 56 cents per gigabyte for the 320GB model. The 500GB Clickfree drive offers an even cheaper option at $220 that factors out to just 44 cents, beating out the Iomega eGo Helium for the best deal out of any external hard drive we've reviewed.
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Cost | |
Capacity | |
Cost per GB |
Performance
We can't get mad at the Clickfree's performance results either. In fact, out of five other drives in our head-to-head speed test, the Clickfree registered the fastest marks with a 26.38MBps read and 23.34MBps write rating. The only other drive that comes close is Lenovo's ThinkPad USB Secure Hard Drive at almost a full megabyte slower per second in both read and write. A wallet-friendly price tag and record-breaking transfer speeds easily thrust the Clickfree into our list of the "Top 5 favorite" external hard drives.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Read | |
Write |
Service and support
The Clickfree Web site indicates all its drives are backed by a measly one-year warranty and will only be considered for exchange if you include the original purchase receipt that contains the date of retail purchase. We normally prefer the warranty date to last at least two or even three years from the purchase to ensure a working drive well into the disk's life cycle. For an alternate drive with a longer warranty, take a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure Hard Drive.
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- portable hard drive,
- Iomega Corp.,
- backup,
- hard drive,
- Microsoft Windows
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Where to buy
Clickfree Portable Backup Drive (320GB):
$106.60 - $119.00
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$115.00 | Yes |
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$115.00 | Yes |
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$119.00 | Yes |
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$109.82 | See Site |
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$106.60 | Yes |
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