Maxtor Corporation - Definition and Overview

Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=MXO)) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer hard disks.

Maxtor targets both the server and desktop market, concentrating on disk capacity more than disk speed for desktops. They started in 1982 as a specialty disk maker, manufacturing large, fast hard drives for servers and power users. In 1990, they entered the mass market with their purchase of bankrupt MiniScribe; the transition was a tough one, with the early products of this union (notably the 7120 3.5" 120MB drive) having many QA and design problems. Later products managed to sell well despite the initial problems, and in 1996 they completely redesigned their drive lines, introducing the DSP-based "DiamondMax" series, which are currently regarded as some of the best ATA drives, quality-wise.

Maxtor sold the rights to their original "XT"-series drives to a company called Sequel in the mid-1990s, thus exiting the server SCSI drive market; around this time, SCSI versions of the 7000 series drives were also discontinued. In 2000, Maxtor purchased Quantum's hard drive business. This move made them larger than their rivals (notably Seagate), and also returned them to the server-SCSI market.

Maxtor in recent years have been expanding into the external hard disk market, such as the Maxtor One-Touch II personal hard drive that is marketed to be convenient external storage for the home user.

External links

• Maxtor website (http://www.maxtor.com/)
• Silicon Valley InfoZone - Maxtor (http://www.siliconvalleyinfozone.com/companies/maxtor.html)