Comstar 80gb 2.5" external drive $149 BB

[gdvan]

I got one of these drives at the last BB sale a few months ago, for $168, but now at least to 1 dec, it is $149 (no rebates needed). It is very small, no power supply (powered from 2 usb plugs). The design of the case has changed.. the new model uses usb connectors at all 3 ends, and is rounded thus a bit smaller.

I got another one friday, and the brand of the drive inside was about the same as the one 4 months ago. It is a Fujitsu MHV2080AH (previous one was MHT2080AH). This appears to be a good drive comparing the specs on the Fujitsu site with others eg hitachi seagate or WD. It is a 5400 rpm drive.

Compared to a big heavy external one that sounds like a vacuum, I find this great to take with me with the laptop (eg i sometimes rip dvd's to the portable drive). As i'm sure you know, Comstar is packaged by Samtack-- a local distributer ie a brand name oem disk, with their enclosure and warranty (one year parts and labour--(they are in markham))

However, the most handy thing I find, is that I can swap the drive with a 40 gig one that comes with an entry level laptop, and have a 40gig backup drive and an 80 gig laptop. (the first one went into a dell latitude 110l I got 4-6mths ago). Now a bare 80gig 2.5" drive can be purchased for $120 (CC), but then waddya do with the one from the lappie? (a 100meg 2.5" bare drive costs $200+ so this is the sweet spot.)

I happened to be passing thru the US after visiting relatives for thanksgiving (24 nov this year), and as is my custom, I scan the black friday ads on thanksgiving and get up early (3am) on friday to do a bit of shopping before driving back. This year I went to wal-mart, and got a hpz2308wm notebook for $378 us. However, it only had a 40gig (WD 5400rpm ) drive and 256meg memory. Thus I picked up this comstar drive at Best Buy in Canada (did not want to bump the amount i was carrying from the us to canada and disturb the custom gods) on the way back. Upon return I swapped the drives. One can either load the software from the boot recovery disks, or use a ghost program such as a free trial version of True Image by Acronis. I also got a 512meg pc3200 memory chip ($69 at bb after rebate), and now have a respectable 768meg, 80gig 15" HP laptop with wireless, and a nice 40gig backup drive (which bb is selling for $149.99)

Of course just because they are selling the 40 gigger at $149 doesn't make it worth that (unless you believe 'you get what you pay for'--which i find is a very stupid philosophy for an RFD member--and never ceases to amaze me when i see it on this board--well enough philosophising)
\
Some people might like to upgrade an even smaller HD in their older lappie-- just beware that the 80 gigger might not be supported by their motherboard..(remember that 32gig boundary--could try mem resident software from the hard drive makers)..

Well sorry for the rambling thread and happy rambling (thru all that space) if you figger to get the 80gigger.

[AllWheelDrift]

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10062459&catid=20238

Or get this combo deal from NCIX... 80GB Samsung drive and Bytec enclosure for $129
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13966&vpn=SAM80-BY-25MM&manufacture=Samsung&promoid=1021

[Siefer999]

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10062459&catid=20238

Or get this combo deal from NCIX... 80GB Samsung drive and Bytec enclosure for $129
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=13966&vpn=SAM80-BY-25MM&manufacture=Samsung&promoid=1021

i picked up the samsung 80gb drive for 114, i have an extra 2.5inch enclosure that i picked up on ebay last year for $16 shipping included.

[mrken]

II happened to be passing thru the US after visiting relatives for thanksgiving (24 nov this year), and as is my custom, I scan the black friday ads on thanksgiving and get up early (3am) on friday to do a bit of shopping before driving back. This year I went to wal-mart, and got a hpz2308wm notebook for $378 us.
:eek: You came back alive? :lol:

How many people were there and how many notebooks were there?

BTW, I could not believe that you typed such a long post, but did not include a link to the product page or to the flyer! :razz:

Anyway, I would say that it is an okay deal, since NCIX has it for $20 less (and no PST for non-BC residents). The Samsung drive at NCIX includes an extra two years of warranty for a total of three years, and you even get a free CD case with NCIX branding! :lol:

[lazybum131]

The Samsung drive will come with a three year warranty too. Only 1-year for the ComStar.

[willy]

http://www.bestbuy.ca/multimedia/products/large/10062459.jpg

[weesur]

I am also looking for a HD. But I would wait for the boxing day sale hoping that I will get something cheaper

[uncle_ned]

I am also looking for a HD. But I would wait for the boxing day sale hoping that I will get something cheaper

I bought a 160GB usb external Conmstar at Best Buy on the week-end for $129. Rebate at cash.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&MSCSProfile=3C79F0C7EA3162B2F4DE0859C8631BEABAE98A 862CEEA3662AE2FD2B8B68E0C0B9F904D6DB8A5129E20013C6 54F2F775E6DBA7135D0154FE84FACA79671FABB3041A28FF3B D073EBC34A41668AF3A34290696CD89915E8A5268510E0FE69 B06C2A9FC666CE3987A1AA0340CFD554283231D92AAE5D219D 76&sku_id=0926INGFS10062461&catid=20238

[Azenha]

I bought a 160GB usb external Conmstar at Best Buy on the week-end for $129. Rebate at cash.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&MSCSProfile=3C79F0C7EA3162B2F4DE0859C8631BEABAE98A 862CEEA3662AE2FD2B8B68E0C0B9F904D6DB8A5129E20013C6 54F2F775E6DBA7135D0154FE84FACA79671FABB3041A28FF3B D073EBC34A41668AF3A34290696CD89915E8A5268510E0FE69 B06C2A9FC666CE3987A1AA0340CFD554283231D92AAE5D219D 76&sku_id=0926INGFS10062461&catid=20238

You're missing the point. We're talking about a 2.5" drives. What you posted is a 3.5" drive. There's a big price difference between these two size drives.

Neverthless, I agree with previous postings that buying a drive and a case will come out cheaper then a pre-packaged 2.5" drive/case combo.

In my case, about four months ago I managed to get two 80gig drives off the newsgroups for $80 each brand new (no taxes either), and a two $12 USB cases from CWO (had to pay taxes on these). The final total cost was about $94 each.

[gdvan]

:eek: You came back alive? :lol:

How many people were there and how many notebooks were there?

BTW, I could not believe that you typed such a long post, but did not include a link to the product page or to the flyer! :razz:

Anyway, I would say that it is an okay deal, since NCIX has it for $20 less (and no PST for non-BC residents). The Samsung drive at NCIX includes an extra two years of warranty for a total of three years, and you even get a free CD case with NCIX branding! :lol:

Next time I guess I will try to include a reference--, but you guys are SOO efficient, in 4 minutes ALLWHEELDRIFT had put in the reference, and the NCIX alternate in a terse, pithy post. MrKen is gradually teaching me (last time he caught me putting in carriage returns!! (how crude I was back then))..

MrKen, the point about no PST is great, but you should have also mentioned the $5.99 shipping!! and given that the 15.99 express shipping is also mentioned, one is wondering exactly how long the product would take to wend it's way across the country. (I am in Ontario)

I agree with you all that the NCIX alternate is a good call espec re the 3 year warranty.., or as i mentioned, you could get a bare drive at CC and there are lots of cheap 2.5" cases since the makers dont have to worry about power supplies. And the free CD case is a lot better than a kitchen sink..

I guess i need to get up to speed on the length of disk warranties again. When manufacturers went to 1 year, i kinda thought 3 years were going out...(and it took me awhile to work my way thru all my stocked up purchases).. but I guess a lot have gone back to 3 years. Back then I found, i used the warranty a lot after 2.5 years!! , so this is good .

--note, starting my education, i looked up the drive in this comstar unit (MHT2080AH) on the fujitsu web site (canada), and find it is the version with a 3 year warranty.
(as opposed to the oem 1 year version).. Thus it appears that Fujitsu in Mississauga would honor the 3 year warranty (manufactured oct 2005, so warranty good to dec 2008).. If it crashes I will persue this.. I am too lazy to go further at this time, and I don't want to waste fujitsu's time either.

Re the US part of the trip, which I kinda snuck in cause its not really the subject..however since you ask.. Last year I went to best buy, but wal-mart is kindof a newcomer to the computer laptop black fri sale, and in the area I was in, they did not advertise in the local paper, but the paper 40 miles away not everyone gets. So at 3:15 am I arrived, went inside (superstore open 24 hours--sale starts at 5am), joined the only line I saw --the lappy line. There were 10 or so in the line at that point. First had come 6pm the last nite. The girlfriend of the guy at the front of the line, who came at 3am, said there were 18 lappies. It was quiet for awhile, but about 4am other lines started to form (eg the gameboy line, the LCD TV line etc, and the cut-in lines..) Eg our line had to cross an aisle, and a line slinked from either side of wannabe cutinners.. I think there were quite a few stubs.. like a fan out.. . the 'real line' started looking more alert ..no more nappies for the lappie crew.. Finally at 5am, a girl gave out one by one, 18 slips of paper to the main lappie line.. each person told her who was behind them, and the stub lines, the cutin lines, lost out. Of course most of the stubs started after the 18 papers were given out. Then we paid (lots of cashiers), and took our slips and receipts to the back where we were given the notebook.

I was out by about 5:15am, and walked to the staples 200 feet away, which did not open until 6am. Staples did not have a very big line (like only about 50 at that time), cause they did not have many big ticket items that were best of BF class. So I joined that line, and at 5:55 they opened the doors, and I got a couple of items. I mean since the guy above this mentioned the 3.5 inch hard drive, I guess i could mention i got a maxtor 200gig drive for $29.. (after staples web easy rebate), and a dl 16x writer for $17.99 (after easyrebate) as well as a mimo router..

I am envious of Azenha who got 2 80 gig drives for $80 each with no tax AT ALL!.... I'm sure we all do pretty well..

Now, MrKen, I have again typed TOO much with NO references and NO useful information... tsk tsk.. I learn sooooo slowly at times. Teaching can be frustrating.. eh? (just to prove where my heart is) :confused:

[mrken]

My eyes! Too much text!

I cannot believe that the Americans are so civil! I thought that they would have taken out their guns and start fighting over the sale items. :lol:

Was not somebody trampled to death last year during Black Friday at Walmart or something?

Now, MrKen, I have again typed TOO much with NO references and NO useful information... tsk tsk.. I learn sooooo slowly at times. Teaching can be frustrating.. eh? (just to prove where my heart is) :confused:
Argh!!! Pulls hair out and feeds it to intake fan of computer. :razz:

It is NCIX, by the way. :D

[weesur]

I mean since the guy above this mentioned the 3.5 inch hard drive, I guess i could mention i got a maxtor 200gig drive for $29.. (after staples web easy rebate), and a dl 16x writer for $17.99 (after easyrebate) as well as a mimo router..



200 gig for 29 :-0 Are we going to get something like that