Seagate launches Backup Plus social backup drives

 

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Posted on 12 Jun 2012 at 09:55, by Gareth Halfacree

Storage specialist Seagate has announced a new range of backup drives, the Seagate Backup Plus family, which it claims makes keeping content safe on both Windows and OS X based PCs as easy as possible.

The external drives, based on the previously-launched GoFlex chassis, feature a new software back-end dubbed Seagate Dashboard. This software offers a one-click backup system which goes beyond the capabilities of most, providing functionality to back up both local and remote content to the external hard drive.

This feature bears investigating: while most backup systems will only back up files stored on the connected computer or, at best, the local network, Seagate's new Backup Plus drives reach out and save content stored on cloud-based services including social networking sites like Facebook and image sharing sites like Flickr. Should something befall a user's account on such a site - or should the company operating the site go bankrupt and close - the user's images are safe.

The cloud-powered functionality of the new drives goes two ways: as well as saving content from remote services, the software also provides a single-click system for sharing selected content to such sites as well.

"Backing up needs to be an essential part of everyone's digital life. Nearly everything that is dear to us is now in a digital format; from tax documents, to emails, to family photos and video, many of these files can not be recreated in the event of an accidental loss or system failure", claimed Scott Horn, vice president of marketing at Seagate. "Seagate is in the business of keeping digital content and files protected in every aspect, whether it is in the cloud, stored on PC or with our external consumer products. Backup Plus is a product that eliminates the barriers to protecting these digital assets. The new Dashboard delivers a simple and complete backup experience with the added benefit of saving photos and video stored on Facebook and other social networks."

UK pricing for the drives, which are available in a compact 2.5in version and desktop-oriented 3.5in version, have yet to be confirmed.