Comstar external hard drive is it good,bad, ok?

[rush356]

I dont know too much about computers. i noticed my computer getting much slower, so i am thinking about gitting external hard drive. Future shop has comstar 320 gb for 69.99 its 4 times more memory compering to my computer. Anyway my Q: is it good, bad, ok?

Comstar 320GB external hard drive is a high-performance external hard drive ideal for storing and backing up your music, video, photos and more. With Hi-Speed USB 2.0, setup is a snap and data transfer rates are fast and reliable. More Info

WebID: 10108944
Mfr. Part Number: CO-HDE3-320G
Average Seek Time 8.9ms
Data Buffer 8MB
Included In Box USB 2.0 Cable,Driver CD, Power Connector
Interface USB 2.0
Internal or External External
Maximum Data Transfer Rate 480Mbps
PC/Mac PC
Product Dimensions 3.1(W) x 10.8(H) x 18.7(D) cm
Product Weight 0.95 kg
Rotations Per Minute (RPM) 7200 RPM
Software Included Yes
Storage Capacity 320GB
System Requirements PC
Type of Media External Hard Drive
Warranty 1 Year Limited



More Information


FEATURES:

Plug and Play

Organize and archive vast photo and artwork libraries.

Edit and exchange massive audio and video projects.

Extraordinary Capacity: With 320GB of storage, you have plenty of room to store an entire digital photo library, HD movies, or DV video.

Quiet And Cool: An efficient convection cooling system and a thermostatically controlled fan keep this unit reliably cool and remarkably quiet.

Capacity Gauge: See at a glance how much space is available on your storage system.

[Simon]

The thing is, comstar is probably the company that makes the case, and puts a HDD in there. The case is really tough to screw up, meaning, the name means nothing. I'd be willing to bet it's a major manufacturer's hard drive in the case (Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital etc).

[rush356]

Hey Simon so it should be good for me? I know nothing about hard drives.

[Simon]

Should be. A 1 year warranty is pretty standard for Hard Drives. Just take care of it, in the sense that you don't bump it around, or put it near any magnetic stuff and it should serve you well.

At $70, you could buy one every couple of years.

[rush356]

So i cant put it next to my computer speakers?

[Simon]

Computer speakers are magnetically shielded. That is, if they are, in fact, computer speakers and not stereo speakers or the like hooked up to the computer.

[rush356]

Ok, thanks dude.

[Snafu]

i noticed my computer getting much slower, so i am thinking about gitting external hard drive.

If your slow computer problem is due to your hard drive being close to full then this might help if you unload stuff onto the external drive. If this is not the problem then you will still have a slow computer.

Depending on the source of the slowness your money might be better spent on more ram rather than more hard drive space.

Just something to think about before you spend your money on something that may not fix your problem

[rush356]

My computer hard drive is 80 gb and 53 gb are used. I am upgrading my ram from 2 X 256 mb to 2 X 1gb cards.

[X-Treme]

Comstar is just the house brand for Future Shop and, as Simon said, its the actual drive mechanism inside the case that counts.

I also agree with Ron, you should really try and find out the source of the slowness rather than just adding a hard drive thinking that will speed things up.

If, in fact, the internal hard drive is filling up it could be the source of the slowness due to their not being enough swap space for the operating system. The hard drive should have about 10% free space for a proper swap file to do it's thing. If you have more than that available in free space you may want to look at other sources for your slowness.

[rush356]

My hard drive is 66.25 % full.

[Simon]

That's not full enough to make it slow down. Try doing a defragmentation, and also check your processor usage (task manager) to see if there's a process hanging. It could be using 50-99% of your processor capacity, and slowing everything else down.

[rush356]

That's not full enough to make it slow down. Try doing a defragmentation, and also check your processor usage (task manager) to see if there's a process hanging. It could be using 50-99% of your processor capacity, and slowing everything else down.

Ok i am lost now Where do i find:

defragmentation and processor usage (task manager) to see if there's a process hanging?

[Simon]

Right click on the taskbar (at the bottom of the screen) where there is no icon, and select "Task Manager"

Defragmentation is available by right clicking on your C:\ Drive in my computer, going to the Tools tab, and selecting Defragment

This is assuming Windows 2000/XP as your Operating System

[rush356]

Ok i'll try that.

[rush356]

Ok i found task manager but dont know what to look for or what to do. I have Windows XP as Operating System

[Simon]

At the bottom, it should show your processor usage. This should typically be below 10%, unless you're in the middle of some video editting, or photo editting or a big file copy process etc......

If it's higher, for any length of time, click on Processes and see which one is using up your processor. BTW, System Idle Process doesn't count.

[weerd 1]

why not offer the puter geek a coffee and get him over to fix it with the promise that there will be another if he can fix it
bribes work sometimes

[Pezzy]

You say that like you think the IT Geek likes coffee or something.

[rush356]

CPU Usage 0 - 4 % and sometimes jumps to 16% and 32 %