Last Updated March 1, 2009   Product Rating   Extremely easy to use; minimal setup required Works with both PC (32/64-bit) and Macs   Cannot be used to backup both PCs and Macs OS X 10.5 required for Mac use

External backup drives are really important these days with all of the important information that we all have stores on our computers. Just think about it...what would you do if you lost all of your financial documents, photos, e-mail contacts, and more? With the Clickfree HD325 you get file backup protection and 320GBs of space to backup all of your precious files. It is both Mac and PC compatible and connects using a USB 2.0 interface for fast file transfers.

The Clickfree HD325 is a nice little external hard drive which is designed nicely and looks pretty standard. The front (or top-side) of the device has 2 indicator lights, one for power and hard drive activity. The top-edge has the power input and mini-USB input port. Overall, the HD325's black and silver design make it look pretty sleek and its slim design looks very nice.

The Clickfree HD325 is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, and Vista (32- and 64-bit) and Mac OS X 10.5. The only interface on the device is USB 2.0, which is plenty fast for most users, although we would have liked to see maybe eSATA for even faster connections. The cable included with the HD325 is a Y-shaped dual-connection which allows for another USB connection for systems that require additional power to run the drive, but most newer computers won't need that additional connection.

When you plug the Clickfree HD325 into any compatible Windows computer, the drive will start to look for files to backup, such as music, video, picture files as well as e-mails and Microsoft Office files (Excel, PowerPoint, and Word) and will begin to back them up once it has found them all. Keep in mind that this device does not backup the entire system, such as applications and operating system files, but just those irreplaceable files that cannot be replicated. Once the initial backup is completed, which may take a little while depending upon how many files you have, each additional backup only takes a few minutes because it only backs up files that have changed since last backup.

With a Mac computer, it must be running the latest version of OS X, version 10.5, but the backup process is exactly the same. However, when you first plug it in, a little icon appears saying "Start Clickfree Backup". When you click it, it will setup the drive for Mac use because it comes setup for Windows out of the box. Once this is complete, the backups work just the same as on Windows (and as described above) and will run subsequent backups automatically. If you ever want to go between platforms, meaning between Windows and OS X, the drive will have to be reformatted.

Perhaps the best use of the the Clickfree HD325 is the ability to backup multiple computers all on one drive. Again they have to be computers of the same platform, either OS X or Windows, to prevent the drive from having to be reformatted. This makes the Clickfree perfect to plug into your computers every week or some other regular interval to make sure they are all backed up and safe.

When you want to restore files because of accidental deletion, drive failure, etc., the process on both the PC and Mac is identical. Just click on the search button and you can look for the category the file would be under, such as documents, and then select the files and it will automatically transfer the file(s) back onto the system in a new folder. Files can be restored cross-platform from the Clickfree and from one computer to another as well.

Overall, the Clickfree HD325 is extremely simple to easy and an almost no-brainer for easy backup of important files. The setup is minimal and the automatic backups make sure your files are always safe. It does lack the advanced scheduling options of other pricier backup solutions, but it still does the job.