Clickfree was found in the early 2005, being inspired by the easy to use portable storage devices and they have quickly built a truly consumer friendly storage devices. Clickfree is determined to manufacture external hard drives that have both the features of ultimate ease of use and the latest of the storage technologies. Here we review Clickfree’s HD525 500GB Portable USB Backup Drive that promises to offer a hassle free and plug to go backup.

Being completely dependent on incremental backups on your external hard drive is a good idea, but then there is no need for you to settle in there as this 500GB external hard drive solution of Clickfree makes it very easy to have a constant backup on hand. This is a very advantageous feature because, in case you are using a portable backup drive in order to keep your crucial data out of any unexpected disasters, it is essential that every little backup is made immediately.

Small and light weighted:

Though the Clickfree HD525 has the smaller dimensions of 4.52×0.67×2.9 inches (L X W X H) than some of the other portable drives that we have tested and is much lighter than most of them, as it weighs just 0.38 pounds which is about 0.22 pounds lighter than the bulky lomega eGo Camo. The drive felt very solid and tough in its metal and plastic casing.

Zero effort for installation:

The initial set up of the drive is extremely easy as the best part is that there is no any actual set up, that you will have to be doing. The Clickfree HD525 Portable Hard Drive has the software built in to the drive, which automatically runs, finds, organises and finally backs up all the data in the host computer. Installation involves inserting the supplied USB cable, which has two heads in case your PC’s ports are underpowered. And that’s it. The software runs within 60 seconds of insertion.

Capacities and compatibility:

Some of the other capacities of Clickfree HD525 other than the 500GB capacity are 120GB, 160GB, 250GB and 320GB. Having a capacity of 500GB, the HD525 allows you backup data from about 40 computers. Each of these hard drives uses a 2.5″ hard disk that spin at 5400rpm with 8MB cache. The drive is compatible only with Windows XP and Vista.

Zero effort for backup too:

Unlike most of the other external hard drives in the market, the HD525 500GB needs zero effort in order to backup files on a host pc. Once the drive is plugged in, it connects and assigns two of the same file letters to the host drive, out of which one is for the software’s executable file and the other is for the drag and drop of the data dumps. Once this is done, the drive automatically launches its pre-installed proprietary software. Hence, each time the drive is connected, you will be able to get complete info about both the host and the drive contents. The backup settings has to be altered, in case you want to be very specific on choosing exactly what types of files you want your drive to be protecting. You can even choose entire sub folders to get updated regularly; there is also an option available for you to make just a clone copy of the desktop drive. But keep in mind that you will not be able to copy over the files while the backup is in progress.

Exclusive features:

We are flattered by the fact that Clickfree HD525 2.5″ Hard Drive is capable of copying over a complete MS Outlook DB that includes calendar events, archived mail and phone numbers. The drive is also capable of identifying and copying the hidden files, raw format of images and some of the other uncommon types of file that a majority of the other external hard drives in the market fail to identify.

The first time you plug in the device to back up your system alone takes some time, but from then on, HD525 syncs only the newly added and altered files. Hence, from then on, each back up will be done in well less than five minutes depending on the size of the drive. Another clever feature that Clickfree has included in its drive is that, even the files that you delete from your host computer does not get deleted from the drive and hence just in case you need it for latter use, the drive will be having it for you. Yet another convenient feature that HD525 has is that, it allows you to maintain up to 15 different backup profiles on a single drive, with a completely different settings for each one of them. The internal software organizes and separates each profile and lets you restore individual files or the whole onto a computer. But one blot here is that, every data that you restore is all saved to a single file folder on the receiving drive. A sophisticated backup software would return individual files to their original location but with the Clickfree drive, the folders have to re organised manually.

A great performer too:

Not only are the features of Clickfree HD525 flattering, so is its performance. When put into test with five of the other leading external hard drive brands like Maxtor Black Armor, Seagate FreeAgent Go, lomega eGo Camo, Aluratek Tornado Plus and Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure Hard Drive, Clickfree came out in flying colours with fastest read and write speeds of 26.38MBps and 23.34MBps respectively.

Lesser load on your wallet:

The price tag on the drive is quite reasonable for HD525’s speedy performance. In fact we are surprised with such a low cost put on the drive for all the tweaks that you get to do with the Clickfree’s software. It is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive drive that you can find in the market as it falls right in the middle of the price scale. In fact, the 500GB version is the cheapest drive of all the other capacities of the same model when the price is worked out for a single GB.

Warranty:

Clickfree offers HD525 just one year warranty and will be considered for an exchange only if the original purchase receipt that has the date of retail purchase is produced. One year warranty is very less for an external hard drive, a minimum of two years is necessary to ensure that the drive is well into its life cycle.

Verdict:

Being wallet free and also having very high read and write speeds, the 500GB HD525 wins any editors heart and we are not an exception. Though there are very few hiccups with Clickfree HD525’s features and performance, we are very happy with its overall results and hence we recommend the HD525 for your portable backup needs. The Clickfree Portable Backup is a USB hard drive promising hassle-free plug-and-go backup. But if you are not satisfied with the warranty offered by Clickfree, you can even consider Lenovo ThinkPad USB Secure Hard Drive.

Clickfree HD525 Hard Disk Drive - Technical Specification Table

Manufacturer Clickfree
Model Name Clickfree HD525 500GB
Model number HD525
Form Factor 2.5″
Dimensions (H x W x D) in inches 0.7 X 2.9 X 4.5
Capacity 500GB
Interface Type Hi-Speed USB
Buffer Size 8 MB
Interface Transfer Rate 480 Mbps
Spindle Speed 5400rpm
Interfaces 1 x Hi-Speed USB
Cables Included 1 x USB cable
Operating system supported Microsoft Windows Vista / 2000 / XP
Warranty One year

Other External Hard Drives