Seagate Technology on Tuesday introduced Backup Plus storage devices that support one-click backup of content on hard disk drives and the ability to save and share content on Facebook and Flickr as well as to backup content on the aforementioned services.

Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 hard drives are newly designed external storage that work interchangeably with both Windows and Apple computers, come loaded with the new Seagate Dashboard software for one-click local backup and deliver new features to protect, share and save nearly every aspect of one’s digital life. Seagate Backup Plus products are the world’s first external hard drives to provide easy backup for content on social networks, such as Facebook and Flickr. The Seagate Dashboard included on Backup Plus also provides a single click path to Save (download) and Share (upload) personal photos and videos on Facebook and Flickr.

Although the idea of backing up content from social services is clearly an innovative one, with support of only Facebook and Flickr, it will hardly become truly popular across the world and across different types of customers.

“The idea of providing a backup of photos and videos from Facebook is an interesting one, which I believe may help people come to realize the importance of maintaining multiple copies of any digital asset regardless of where it is stored. Social media has become a massive repository for personal digital content, and most consumers have not likely considered the possibility of losing access to those shared memories,” said Brett Sappington, director of research for Parks Associates.

According to a recent survey commissioned by Seagate and conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 22-24, 2012, more than half (54%) of U.S. adults personally have and/or know someone who has lost files. Over one-quarter (27%) of U.S. adults personally have lost files and found that it was upsetting for them. While almost all (97%) of those surveyed were identified as computer owners; only 11% have a continuous backup plan and only 10% have a daily backup plan.

Seagate Backup Plus drives will initially be available in capacities of 500GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities for portable drives and 1TB to 4TB for Backup Plus Desk drives. Mac versions of Backup Plus will be available in 500GB and 1TB portable flavours as well as in 2TB and 3TB models for desktops.

Tags: Seagate, Backup Plus, HDD