Data backup is a pain in the neck, which is why so few individual users bother with it, relying instead on their IT department to manage such tedious tasks. Given the prevalence of viruses, dodgy software and occasional incompetence, this is not wise. There's nothing like the feeling of coming into the office on a Monday morning to find that the presentation you spent all last week working on has disappeared without trace.

The solution is some sort of removable storage device. Not a floppy disk, as the capacity is too small, but maybe a Zip disk or similar. But these types of disk aren't too convenient to carry around in your pocket, hence devices such as this Flash USBDrive.

As its name suggests, it's a small 'disk drive' without any mechanical moving parts. Instead it uses flash memory (which stores data without the need for external power). Once plugged into the USB port of a desktop or notebook computer, and once the drivers are installed, the USBDrive can be accessed via a drive letter. This means you can drag and drop data files onto it and take them with you.

What's particularly good about this device is its size. It's small enough to be clipped into a shirt pocket or attached to a key-ring. Or even (and you possibly have to be a bit paranoid to go for this option) hung around your neck on the supplied cord. We suspect that this particular fashion statement is unlikely to catch on.

The 'drive' comes with a USB extension cable so that you don't have to fiddle around at the back of your PC and the drivers are supplied on a very small mini-CD which you could carry in your wallet if you needed to access your data on a different machine.

There's a write-protect switch on the side of the device to prevent accidental file deletion, along with a two-colour LED that lights up green when correctly connected to the host PC and red during data transfer. The driver software also pops up a window during the write process so that you can see when it's safe to remove the drive from the USB port.

The drive is available in a variety of capacities, from 16MB (which we reviewed) up to a maximum of 1GB. However, before you rush out to invest in a 1GB drive, be aware that flash memory is not famous for its read/write speed. Backing up 32MB of data to the Flash USBDrive is not a problem, but regularly copying 1GB of data to such a device could try your patience.

Verdict
The combination of a USB connection and flash memory is a useful one. You'll need to install drivers on the host PC before you can access the drive - some other, similar devices have built-in processors so that you don't have to - but that's a minor point. This gadget is a great way to ensure that you carry a backup of your important documents with you wherever you go.

Company: Centerprise

Contact: 01256 378000

Tags: universal serial bus backup disk storage flash memory personal computer drive letter assignment light-emitting diode hard disk drive