What happens if your computer dies on you? For most users this might also mean the loss of precious data.

With data recovery services being so expensive, it's only wise that backing up your files on a regular basis is the way to go if you want to keep all your holiday photos and old university essays safe.

I admit that I was never one to regularly backup data on my computer because the process had always been so troublesome and tedious. Seagate's new Free Agent Go has proven otherwise.

The new generation portable drives now feature a slimmer, smaller design that is designed to fit nicely into a bag or laptop case. Available in four colours - red, blue, black and silver, the Free Agent Go comes in three capacities ranging from 250GB to 500GB.

I like the new Free Agent Go's brushed metal finish, which was a very great improvement over the first generation's dull black plastic casing. The drive is now much smaller and slimmer as well, and the dynamic light display serves as a convenient indicator of the drive's activity.

Installing the Seagate Manager is easy. The software is pre-loaded into the Free Agent Go drive so there is no need to fumble with CDs. The process is painlessly easy as well - after a two-minute installation, your Free Agent Go is ready to go.

The Seagate Manager is a straightforward, easy-to-use software. Backing up files or setting a up a profile for a regular automatic backup routine can be done in a matter of clicks. The Free Agent Go uses a USB 2.0 connection with a transfer speed of up to 480 Mb/s. I was able to complete an initial backup of about 20GB of data in a just few minutes.

Should anything unfortunate happen to your computer, restoring or retrieving saved files is also a relatively simple process of searching for the file you want and simply copying it to the new location.

The Free Agent Go also archives up to 10 previous versions of each revised file so that you can retrieve old data even if the current file in your computer was updated. I found this feature especially useful - you never know if you might need the older version of a saved file back.

An option to create password protected encryption folders is also available in the Seagate Manager software for storing important or confidential files. Unless you are very concerned about security or share a drive among several users I don't think this function would be used much, but it is still good to have around.

The Verdict

With prices starting from $159 for the 250GB model, the Free Agent Go is good for those who would like to backup their most important files with a minimal dent to their wallets.

The Seagate Manager's easy-to-use user interface and relatively quick data transfer, along with the Free Agent Go's fuss-free approach really makes backing up files no more complicated than the click of a mouse.

If you have yet to get into the habit of backing up your data regularly, it might be time to get one of these handy, user-friendly drives.