It's no surprise that so few individuals back up their data regularly. Backup is time-consuming to carry out and fiddly to configure. By contrast, the latest version of BounceBack Pro from CMS Products is so simple to use - it's virtually automatic from the moment you install it - that you can't go wrong. Well, almost.

Our experience of other personal backup programs that claim to be 'simple' is that they start off with a friendly installation screen before hitting you with a barrage of technical questions, prompting you to specify directories, sets and schedules. BounceBack 7.1's user experience is quite different: from installation to completing the first backup, the most technical prompt we had to deal with was when we were asked to click on the name of our external disk drive.

After the initial backup, which naturally can take up to 45 minutes because of all the file and disk checking, subsequent backups typically only take a minute. Best of all, they are entirely automated: just plug in your external disk drive and let BounceBack do its thing.

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Backup software is only as good as its 'restore' command, however, and BounceBack certainly made this more challenging than its automated backup procedure. When we were prompted to locate a backup set on the external drive, the file selection dialogue was a bit confusing. As it is, we're not sure the target user will understand what a 'backup set' is anyway, especially when they're panicking. Once past this hurdle, though, you can choose to restore everything, or pick specific items if you are confident in navigating your system's folder structure.

Usefully, BounceBack lets more advanced users create multiple backup sets and configure their settings. This is important for computers that have been customised, such as those with additional hard drives or with data files saved in non-standard locations. If you maintain data and programs on a second hard drive, for example, BounceBack's default automated routine will ignore them, instead assuming that everything will be found in the usual places on the boot drive only.

BounceBack Pro 7.1 is available in Windows and Mac editions and is equally appropriate for desktop and notebook users. An Enterprise edition, which includes support for data encryption, is also available, principally targetted at laptop users or people who carry their backup drives around with them.

To this end, CMS Products also offers BounceBack as part of a hardware-software package that includes an ABS Plus USB 2.0 pocket hard drive. We tested this pairing of the two products and can confirm they work very well together. However, as pocket drives go, the ABS Plus range is not the cheapest on the market. You may well find it cheaper to run BounceBack with a third-party pocket drive, or indeed any other internal or external disk drive at your disposal, since BounceBack supports them all.

BounceBack Pro 7.1 turns backup from a chore into a no-brainer. On a normal, uncustomised notebook or desktop computer, it's so effortless that even a toddler could use it. The ABS Plus pocket drive offered with the bundled edition is a bit expensive, though: shop around before buying.