HP SimpleSave

I was considering this drive but I've read that the SimpleSave feature is hard coded into the case and that if the HDD is removed and inserted in a PC, the files are not getatable.
This would make things tricky in the event of failure.
Any comments?
http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=&webid=365393&affixedcode=WW

 

I have a feeling you could just force a format of the drive and it would be fine as a standard drive after that. Anyway, you should take a look at this video (I didn't have time to watch it all, but it seems to confirm what I thought in the bits I saw):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTsrmPPOSnU

Coincidentally, he bought it from Staples and lives in Canada too.

 

@Ripper
Much obliged for the link - it answered my question so I went out and picked one up.

 

No problem, glad I could help. Good buy for the price!

I personally wouldn't want to make use of the proprietary software either but generally speaking HP's bundled stuff isn't too bad.

 

FWIW:
The drive installs files in c:\ under AppData in Windows 7.
After it's installed and rebooted, my Antivirus program, AntiVir, blocked the Autorun on the drive by default.
That taken care of, it backed up the folders I told it to monitor and added new files that were created subsequently at five minute intervals.
An odd behaviour was that if I deleted a file from the source drive, the software didn't care and left it on the destination - which is unacceptable.
I then zipped up the installed files in AppData and rebooted, the automatic backup doesn't run anymore.
Thus the drive can be used for drag and drop.
However instead I setup SyncToy to backup the files as a scheduled task ( I had been using it to back up my documents to a hidden flash drive).
SyncToy will add and remove files from/to the paired source/destination drives automatically, so I will leave it at that for the time being.

 

Yeah, that's not great; who needs a backup of something they don't want anymore? Inherently flawed concept.

At least you've been able to utilise the drive the way you'd like without having to remove and re-case it. Hypothetically, I wonder if you removed the "virtual CD" emulator before using the drive initially (as demonstrated in that video) and then put it back together, if it would work as a 'normal' external HDD.

 

I should clarify by saying that it was unacceptable to me - perhaps others would like the fact that it holds on to all the files.

I think it's because it's required to look like a CD to get the Autorun feature to start the monitoring.

I've considered moving it to a new case, but I don't want to pay the going rate for a SATA - USB3 case just now plus a different cable - it starts getting close to what I paid for the drive.