Jan 4, 2011 14:35 GMT  ·  By

Those users that thrive on speed and like responsive hardware and automation will be glad to know that Lexar has designed a pair of backup USB flash drive series that exist mainly to perform system backup tasks.

Since losing one's data is never, or at least almost never, a pleasant thing, storage solution developers, some time ago, came up with the idea of backup drives.

Simply put, backup drives are external storage devices, like HDDs or flash drives, that are especially made to preserve copies of files otherwise stored on a computer.

Many models of this kind have a one-touch function or come bundled or loaded with a software that can meet this objective.

Now, Lexar decided to take things even further, by creating the Echo MX and Echo ZX USB drives.

"We continue to observe mobile notebook users seeking added assurance from backup utility tools that protect their files, but they don't want to deal with extra wires and bulky peripheral appliances," said Jyh Chau, senior product marketing manager, Lexar Media.

Simply put, they are completely automatic and do not require any sort of user input to know they should start their work.

Basically, one need only plug them into the USB port and they will start on their respective task, even protecting the files by means of AES 128-bit encryption.

The Echo MX is compatible with both PCs and Mac systems, features the Echo backup software and can read and write data at 28 MB/s and 10 MB/s, respectively. A final asset of the MX is the always-on capacity meter.

It will be available later this quarter, in capacities of 8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and even 128 GB, while prices will range between $44.99 and $499.99.

The Echo ZX are meant to be left plugged into a PC's USB port permanently and will only be available in 8GB, 16 GB and 32 GB, with prices of $44.99 to $139.99.