Sandisk Ultra Backup USB Flash Drive Review

Do you regularly backup your important files? If you answered no to that question, then you deserve to be spanked. Seriously, it’s just a matter of time before disaster strikes. When it does, I’ll be there to say I told you so… unless you get smart and start backing things up. Today I want to show you a super easy way to get started with the SanDisk Ultra Backup USB drive.

The Ultra Backup drives are available in 8, 16, 32, and 64GB capacities and range in price from $49.99 up to $277.99.

According to SanDisk, this is the first USB drive with a built in backup button. Other than that unique feature, it looks like a typical USB flash drive. It’s made of Black plastic and has a sliding USB connector. When you slide the connector out, it enables you to press the backup button. When the connector is retracted, the button will not depress.

There is a lanyard attachment point on the corner of the drive.

The only other notable physical feature is that the connector slider latch thingy (that’s a technical term) has a Red LED built into it, that blinks during file activity and pulses when idle.

I was sent the 16GB version of this Ultra Backup to review. Of the 16GB, 14.9GB is free for file storage. The backup feature is completely plug and play as long as you are running Windows XP or Vista. It also has U3 functionality, which allows the drive to appear as an autostarting CD. If you’re a Mac or Linux person, you’re left out of all the fun as the flash drive will only function as a regular old, boring, file storage device.

This device is

When you plug it into your computer, the SanDisk backup software program will automatically launch. This app will allow you to choose which types of files that you want to backup (all, images, music, documents, presentations, spreadsheets) and which folders.

There are various advanced backup options that you can set, like only backing up files after a specific date or files that are smaller than a certain size.

You can also have the backup process start automatically when you insert the drive into the computer. For me that takes away the fun of being able to press the built in backup button on the drive 😉

After the backup procedure is complete, you can browse through the file list. This software will save multiple versions of the files, which is a nice feature. You can define the number of versions to keep. Three is default.

When needed, you can restore individual files or folders to the location of your choice. One feature I found surprisingly missing is the ability to restore multiple individual files. You can only choose individual files or folders to restore.

All in all, the SanDisk Ultra Backup USB Drive is super simple to use and works as advertised. It easily backs up the files you want and restores them with equal ease. The price is kind of steep when you compare this product with a regular USB flash drive of equal capacity, but the ability to save multiple versions of files and back them up with the press of a button is very convenient. If the price doesn’t bother you, it’s a handy little backup system that will fit in your pocket.