USBFlashCopy

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffJuly 30, 2013With USB flash drives you can back up and transfer tons of data, but what happens when you lose one? If you're like most people, that's when you think about data backups. But obviously the best time to back up your USB drive is before you lose it. That's what Imposant's USBFlashCopy is for. This portable tool automatically backs up your USB drives to your system's hard drive when you insert them. It can copy all your data or just what you tell it to. USBFlashCopy's Basic Mode is free for noncommercial use.USBFlashCopy runs as soon as you click its executable file. The program detected our USB drive and offered several options in its profile wizard: New profile, Default profile, Never back up this media, and Enable Silent Mode, which requires purchasing a license key to unlock. We selected New Profile, which opened a dialog box full of options, including entering our drive's serial number, copying or moving files to a second destination, and filtering and excluding files and extensions from copying. We could also tell USBFlashCopy to overwrite old files or keep them when new or updated files are copied.By default, the program copies files to your C drive, so be sure your destination directory has enough room for the entire backup. Most people probably won't have problem, but if you boot from a solid-state drive (SSD), you might want to choose an auxiliary drive as a backup destination (a dedicated drive is always the best choice for all backups). When we finished creating our profile, we clicked OK, and USBFlashCopy immediately began backing up our thumbdrive, tracking the job with a green progress bar and counters for Files Copies and Time Elapsed. System variables will affect copying speed.Of course, any time you transfer files from another PC to your PC with a USB drive, it's a good idea to run a security scan, either using your regular tools or one specifically designed for removable drives. But if you regularly shuttle data between home and work, USBFlashCopy can save you a lot of time and trouble.