Anybody who has ever had their computer crash on them and lost precious irreplaceable files knows just how important it is to back your computer up. The more backups the better. Not only does backing your computer up protect you from when (not if) your computer will have a complete meltdown, it also gives you the peace of mind knowing that your files are safe even if you accidentally delete them.
For many computer users, however, backing up their computer is a difficult and intimidating task. So they don’t do it and hope for the best. The HP Portable SimpleSave hard drive is HP’s answer to this issue. It is intended to make the entire backup process simple, painless, and almost hands-free. Essentially it is trying to be Apple’s Time Machine for PC users (note: it is NOT usable on a Mac). The SimpleSave does a pretty good job of being a handsfree backup solution, though it does have a couple shortcomings.
Really, backing up your hard drive with the SimpleSave couldn’t be much easier. It’s as simple as plugging in the hard drive, starting the HP Launcher software, and letting it run. You only click once to accept the user agreement and it does the rest. Restoring your files is just as easy, and you can choose to restore individual folders, or your entire computer. We especially liked how it could back up multiple computers and the files were stored uncompressed on the hard drive so you can easily go through them and grab certain things you need quickly.
However, the software does not do a carbon copy of your hard drive. It only backs up certain file extensions. The list of extensions is… extensive and this is usually no problem. The software backs up almost every extension an average computer user could want, over 330 out of box. Common files like music, photos, documents, and emails will all be saved automatically and easily. However if you work with a more specialized or uncommon kind of file type, then there is a chance it won’t automatically recognize the file type and not back it up. You can go into the options and add that file type, however, it is not at first obvious that one would even need to do that. In addition there are file names and folder tree length restrictions, so if you have some files deeply nested in your hard drive they may not be picked up either. Since the software works by saving only certain file types and folders, it can’t be used to restore an entire system.
The drive itself is sleek, piano black, and minimalist. It requires only the included USB cable to run and power it. With a single blue light and an HP logo, the design is as simple as the software, and its tiny footprint makes it easy to transport. The drive can also be used as a drag and drop drive if you desire.
The entire Simple Save backup process is designed to run in the background or while your computer is idle. It’s not particularly fast- If you have a 60-80 gigabyte hard drive, expect the backup process to take at least 2-3 hours to run the first time. This is normal with any backup software though the first time. Afterwards backups are much more speedy. However that is not a big deal since performance isn’t really an issue with a hard drive intended for back up purposes.
Conclusion
The HP SimpleSave Hard Drive is great for the average consumer in need of a no-brainer back-up solution. For the average user it does its job very well of making the backup process quick and pain free. For the more advanced user there are perhaps some limitations that could cause issues. Although in reality a more advanced user likely knows how to back their entire computer up anyway and won’t require the automated software that comes on the hard drive.
If you or a loved one is operating a computer and not backing it up, give them the gift of a HP SimpleSave Hard Drive and let them sleep a little easier at night. The HP SimpleSave 320 GB 
The Good: Automatic, easy to use, and everything an average computer user could want.
The Bad: Advance back up isn’t as easy as it could be. No Mac client
HP SimpleSave Hard Drive Review Software Rss
[...] here: HP SimpleSave Hard Drive Review By admin | category: back up software | tags: article, extremely-well, files-between, [...]
Ken Sturrock
Also: If you are an advanced user and don’t want to use the software, it’s essentially impossible to get rid of the “virtual CD-ROM” that HP has partitioned into the hard disk. That one issue has turned a cute little hard disk into an inelegant kludge.
Ralph
Not exactly clear what Ken Sturrock is talking about. I have an HP 1TB SimpleSave drive – works like a charm – loaded all my video files onto it – about 600Gig – using it just like an extra hard drive – quiet as a mouse (excuse the pun) – cost me $120CDN – AND 5year parts and labour warranty – no inelegant kludge here, just excellent HP value.
Jerry
@Ralph – It’s perfectly clear – if you want to disable or remove the logical CD-Rom drive that also mounts when you plug this Hard Disk in, you can’t. It’s annoying to have to answer the dialogs and deal with yet another drive letter each time I use the drive. It’s a fine product otherwise; I enjoy the quiet operation, I (and Ken) just want to delete that foolish partition.
JJ
How to remove the virtual cd drive?
mike
well… this is a good one… could any body please suggest me any specialzed online store in selling hard drives please?
john smith
@mike,
well… i can give you a online store’s web address… there services are good.. http://www.micropartsusa.com
thanks buddy… best of luck.
Eduardo Maio
I just returned mine. I even tried to do a low level format but that stupid virtual cd drive was still there. I even deleted the partitions, but nothing…
The guy at the store told me that I wasn’t the first one to return one of those HP SimpleSave drives with the same complaint.
Now I have a Iomega eGo, should have bought in detriment of the HP one.
Karina Nerakson
you know I got a hp simple save two months ago and it was all good at first until i did something stupid that got rid of the hp simple save software because i formatted the hp portable hard drive. So my only way to save files or backup is copying what’s on my c drive to my hp portable drive and for me it’s not realiable or trustworthy. Can anyone help me restore hp simple save automatic backup software? My hp launcher doesnt respond either help.
Sue
I haven’t seen any bad reviews for this product – except what i’m about to write!
I got one of these a few weeks ago and it launched fine, then progressively got worse.
Backups: It is meant to do one big backup then do regular small backups when the pc is in idle mode – so you have a constantly up to date copy of what’s on your pc. Problems: 1) It also did another backup every time i plugged it into another usb drive for the same pc – abit annoying having several full backups of the same info taking up precious space – even though i deleted the data in most of them, i couldn’t delete the folder name, so had a list of empty folders – looked messy. 2) It was meant to back up when my pc was on idle – however it failed to back up on my pc’s own ‘p’ drive – only showing the original backup data and didn’t seem to constantly up date it = useless for me to check it was actually updating my documents. However on the actual device’s screen i think it may have the backed up the up to date information – however it felt a bit hit and miss and i had no confidence in it. 3) The devices icon also appeared and disappeared on the bottom application bar and finally disappeared. So by now I had no idea whether it was backing up or not.
Lack of control: You appear to have very little control over this device other than you can tick and untick the categories of folders to backup. You have no control over when it backs up etc.
HP Customer Service: I then phoned HP – useless customer service – spent 80 minutes going from dept to dept and still got nowhere. Earlier this week I called HP again – 20 minute queue so was advised to give up and call back another day. Called again today and rude man said it was an accessory and to go back to shop (Tesco) i got it from and put the phone down on me – that was before i had had a chance to say what i thought of it!! Just wait till i find HP’s Head office address and i shall be launching a letter at the Chief Executive regarding his Customer Service Depts and cack products!
Replacement: Finally I returned it today to Tesco – they tried it and it didn’t launch on their machine and and so i finally got a new replacement – I got home and this new one didn’t even launch or show any icon! I am at screaming point as have wasted a lot of time and energy on both of these device’s!
Comparative tests: I also tried both devices on both my pc (a few years old) my newish Asus laptop (although i have hardly anything on this laptop) and got a complete lack of any response on there! I have Windows XP on both but that shouldn’t be a problem and usb 2.0 ports of both machines. Other devices work in these same USB ports. If anyone has any suggestions do please contact me….
Positive Thinking: I really want to hear that others have had better luck. So i’m going back to Tesco tomorrow to see if they can give me a third device – i’m convinced something will finally work and haven’t given up just yet although not far from it.
Marian
I am also disappointed with that mounted CD-ROM.
but I have some suggestion:
go to Control Panel | Device Manager | DVD-ROM/CD-ROM | find HP VIRTUAL CD, right click, and choose DISABLE !
that’s it!
it should work
Dana
I’m practically computer illiterate when it comes to this stuff. See my system had a BIG failure a while back, and it told me I could factory restore; with the option to save most of my files provided I had an external drive. I bought one and it seemingly saved/backed up most if not all of the files I wanted, but I can’t seem to find out how to get to them. The HPSS Restore application button doesn’t work, and when I try to do the quick launch it shows WAY less files than there should be. Any clues as to how to work this doohickey?
Sue
Hi All
Thank you for your responses – well after the first HP Simplesave device got worse and worse in terms of not doing what it was meant to do, the icon on the bottom application bar finally disappeared, so i couldn’t control it at all, so i returned device to Tesco, they checked it and it didn’t launch on their machine either now (although it had been ok on a previous visit to Tesco – what fun i had taking this device in and out of Tesco setting of the alarms every time!). So they gave me a replacement and £5 change as it had gone down in price! Came home all excited and guess what it didn’t even launch let alone back up or backup on idle. I spent another hour on yet another PC helpline and decided to go on to Plan B e.g. use the device as a giant flash drive and just do a daily ‘windows run backup’ that does one big backup and then just amends the data therafter daily. That worked but on clicking on ‘backup’ i couldn’t access anything in any detail so couldn’t see what it had backed up. It was only any use if you were to need to restore all yours documents – so with that i returned to Tesco for about the forth time with the device and gave it back!
In the meantime i went to PC world & explained the problem to them and ended up buying a ‘Clickfree Portable hard drive 320GB’ for £109 – yep twice as expensive as the Simplesave but my god its brilliant and worth every penny (both in me feeling secure with having my data reliably updated and in terms of getting my life back from trying to problem solve the HPSS device for which i spent hours trying out different ideas and calling various PC helplines). ‘Clickfree’ does an initial big backup and then backups every day if you want it to (you can see exactly what it backs up and can control it e.g. how often it back-up and what it does in so many ways). I love it so much! Such a relief to find a gadget that really fully satisfies and does what it says on the label (only thing it doesn’t do is delete anything you delete on you main drives (so if you were to need to do a restore at any time it would bring up everything that its backed up – but when it backs up it will add any new documents to the backup including edited copies of documents.
So if your HPSS is messing you around get a refund and get a Clickfree portable external hard drive!
Cheers
Reiki Sue x
Matthew Cheirs
Like so many of you how have written about your love for the HP SimpleSave Portable Hard Drive, I too have a few choice words about the product. The HP Launcher may have been developed to make backing up a drive user friendly for person who is not so knowledgeable in this arena, but what about those of us who have our own favorite program for this task. Programs like Ghost, Acronis True Image Home 2010 or the many other freeware programing that will allow simple and quick backups. The average novice wants to backup their music, photos, movies and documents in just a few clicks. True this may accomplished with the HP Launcher and rightfully so for the term user friendly, but as I read through these comments I don’t seem to get the feel that this is that group of users. This group is a more mature, computer savvy group of individuals who seem thoroughly dismayed the HP Launcher and the only resolution is to get rid of the annoyance. Why can’t HP get on the ball and see the virtual cd is space that can wisely used for further storage. I tried using the DiskPart command to select and format the drive but that didn’t work. So without beating a dead horse, who can say how get rid of this crap? Let me know soon.
Sue
Hi
If your HP simple save isn’t doing what is says then return it, get your money back and if you aren’t very technically minded and want something small and portable (about the same size as an music cassette tape box) that you can easily unplug and take anywhere with you in your handbag/briefcase then get a ‘Clickfree portable hard drive 320gb’ ok so its twice as expensive £109 ish but i could ‘kiss it to death’ it is so fantastic a) same size as HP simple save, b) looks nice and c) guess what – it is a gadget that WORKS everytime without any fuss – it is perfect – thank God i found it before I went into melt down!
Cheers
Sue x
PismoPat
The cable that comes with the model SD320A (small version) is not a usb standard. It has the same size small plug, but seems to be reversed so longer, standard cables don’t work.
Mary
I got one of these a week ago and I just did the normal back up and let my computer run through it, but I didn’t realize that it would back up EVERYTHING I have ever done on my comp. I just wanted to back up my pictures, music, etc. not every single thing. I have searched online on how to delete things off of there or completely take everything and return it, but I can’t find anything. Does anyone know how I can delete and clear it?
Thanks.
Sue
I think you can go into the saved back-up and delete the contents but you can’t seem to delete the actual title of the back-up – unless anyone else knows – i hated this gadget due to the complete lack of control i had over it. Buy a clickfree one and see if you can get a refund on your HPSS. The HPSS will drive you mad in the mean time.
Sue x
Ron Malahide
Hi All,
Not withstanding some previous comments, my experience with the HP SimpleSave HD (SSHD) has been excellent. I have two 1TB models running here at home.
I purchased my first SSHD a few months back ($139.00 cdn). I use it at home here to backup two computers (HP P6242f running Windows 7 and an older Compaq laptop running XP). I run weekly backups of both and have experienced no problems whatsoever. The software ran as advertised right out of the box. I also had one occasion to use the restore feature, and again it did not let me down.
I liked this HD so much that I purchased a second drive to store an offsite backup of my office files. In this application I do not use the “SimpleSave” feature. Since I have plenty of disk space I have not tried to erase the SimpleSave software, choosing rather to ignore it.
BTW – The software I’m using to backup my office files is “BackupAssist” (an excellent product by the way.
Ron
Joseph
Oh darn,i got mess up with my SSHD
accidentally..i have format it..
n The Hp Launcher won’t work..
Did anyone have the link for me to download the SSHD launcher??
Need help..
Max from Toronto
The virtual CD-ROM drive is not on the drive itself. It is very small (about 1 MB), and it resides in the firmware of the control board that communicates between the HP hard drive and your computer’s USB port.
The only way to get rid of it would be for HP to issue a firmware that removes it, which I doubt they’ll do.
Otherwise, ignore it (it bugs me to no end, though), or do what someone else suggested here, disable it through the Device Manager. That’s what I did. I love the drive, and the piano black finish, and it’s quiet operation. Hate the virtual CD-ROM drive.
Tanya
I have the 500GB
The good news…it’s a great back up for pictures, videos, music, and office documents. It’s easy to use, portable, and lightweight enough to throw in a purse or breif case. It’s fast and has plenty of space to save for mutiple users and/or computers keeping all files individual.
The bad news…it only works for PC and does not complete a full system restore. I still have to back up my system restore files to disk but at least that’s quicker now that I only have to back up the system files.
Long and short…it’s a great drive to back up your pictures and music, free up some space on your hard drive or to transport files. I’m never looking for a memory stick or wondering if I have the right one. But if you are looking for something to back up you entire system, I’d keep shopping.
peters
Hi, all !
I need backup files WITHOUT extension. Does anybody know how ?