Clickfree C2 Portable Backup

Clickfree's Automatic Backup system has undergone some changes since the first release.

It still incrementally backs up more than 400 file types, including images, music, emails, documents, spreadsheets and more, and still updates automatically simply by plugging it in.

But this new release adds a host of new features.

A redesigned interface incorporates a search facility that also summarises new and changed files. It has a built-in USB cable, and is supplied with a dock.

Your backed-up data can be secured using 256-bit encryption, which is great if you back up more than one account. Previously, backed-up files were accessible by every user.

iPod backup

Arguably its most exciting new feature is the ability to back up your iPod or iPhone's music files onto the Clickfree drive, or your Mac's internal or external hard drive.

You can automatically import them into iTunes too if you wish. Artist, album and track titles are preserved, though in our tests, carrying over the cover art is a bit hit and miss.

You can back up old style FireWire-charged iPods as well as USB models, but they have to be connected to your Mac via a USB cable.

The new features are just as easy to use as the old ones, and the new interface is a little more intuitive than the old, but not radically different.

Overall it's a superb tool that would earn an MacFormat Choice award if it worked with pre-Leopard versions of OS X, which don't feature Time Machine.