Jon Jacobi is a musician, former x86/6800 programmer, and long-time computer enthusiast. He writes reviews on TVs, SSDs, dash cams, remote access software, Bluetooth speakers, and sundry other consumer-tech hardware and software.
In an ode to the original Star Wars trilogy, Seagate has released a trio of moderately capacious 2TB, USB 2.5-inch hard drive adorned with Skywalker, Vader, and Solo. They're good performers, but pricier than the norm.
Free programs as easy to use and as versatile as Perfect Backup don't come down the pike often. With support for network, FTP, and online destinations, it's also far more capable than you might expect.
Samsung's 990 Pro is another top-tier NVMe SSD from the venerable company. It's competitive with the fastest drives we've tested, but is also significantly pricier than most of its rivals.
We like just about everything about Vantrue's Element 1 (E1), but best day captures require an optional $20 filter which must be removed for acceptable night captures.
We were stoked about this new nav/dash cam unit from Garmin, and we indeed love the easy, large touch display and navigation. But video capture stabilization issues from Garmin's past have reappeared to sour the experience.
Crucial's P3 SSD delivers an outstandingly low price per GB and very good everyday performance. If you don't write large amounts of data continuously, or worry about low TBW ratings, it's a heck of a bargain.
Continuous data protection doesn't get any faster or more reliable than Arcsoft's ShadowProtect SPX. With support for virtual machines and reliable disaster recovery, it's a good fit for SMB and IT types.
Windows own File History is all most users need to keep their vital data backed up, but with version 11, Microsoft has made backing up data not found in the standard system libraries less intuitive.
If you've envied the easy backup of Apple's Time Machine, you as a Windows user can have the next-best thing in Genie Timeline 10 Home. It's great for protecting your PC's files with a minimum of fuss.
WD's Black SN850X NVMe SSD delivers exceptional real-world and random performance, along with sustained throughput that nearly matched Seagate's FireCuda 530. A very fast SSD priced nicely given the performance.
You'd be hard pressed to find a better free solution for backing up your files than Paragon's Backup & Recovery. If you choose compression, it's the standard ZIP format, and you can use Microsoft's nearly universally supported VHDs as containers so you don't need the program to browse and recover files.
Remote desktop services don't come any more robust than this product by iDrive, the online backup company. In fact, iDrive has melded it remote desktop software with its online storage service for backups.
Seagate's Beskar Ingot NVMe drives is a dressed-for-the-Star-Wars-ball version of the FireCuda 530. It's every bit as fast and adds a hefty, Mandalorian-themed heat sink to the mix.
