List of defunct hard disk manufacturers

Main article: History of hard disk drives § Manufacturing history

At least 218 companies have manufactured hard disk drives (HDDs) since 1956. Most of that industry has vanished through bankruptcy or mergers and acquisitions. None of the first several entrants (including IBM, who invented the HDD) continue in the industry today. Only three manufacturers have survived—Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital (WD)—all of which grew at least in part through mergers and acquisitions.^[1]

Diagram of consolidation

Manufacturers

The following is a partial list of defunct hard disk manufacturers. There are currently 119 manufacturers in this incomplete list.

Name	Country of origin	Year of market entry	Year of market exit	Fate	Notes	References
3M	United States	1981	1983	HDD assets sold to Disc Tech One		[2]
Alps Electric	Japan	?	2008	HDD assets sold to TDK		[3]
Amcodyne	United States	1983	1986	Acquired by Century Data Systems		[4][5]
Ampex	United States	1970	?	?		[6]
Anelex Corporation	United States	1964	1967	Acquired by Mohawk Data Sciences		[7][8]
Areal Technology	United States	1987	1999	Acquired by Tomen Electronics and Sanyo in 1993, dissolved in 1998	Manufactured the first HDDs employing glass as the substrate for their platters	[9]
Atasi Corporation	United States	1982	1987	Acquired by Tandon then Western Digital in 1987	Considered a pioneer in the industry but had financial struggles throughout its lifetime	[10][11][12]
Aura Associates	United States	1992	?	?		[13]
Avatar Systems	United States	1991	1998	Bankruptcy		[14][15][16]
BASF	Germany	1970	1982	HDD assets sold to Kennedy Company		[17][18]
Brand Technologies	United States	1986	?	?		[19]
Bryant Computer Products	United States	1959	1972	Dissolution	Renamed to XLO Computer Products in 1972	[20]
Bull Peripheral	United States	1984	1989	Acquired by Seagate Technology	American subsidiary of CII-Honeywell-Bull	[21]
Burroughs	United States	1964	?	?		[22]
C. Itoh	Japan	1985	?	?		[23]
Castlewood Systems	United States	1999	2004	Bankruptcy
Caelus Memories	United States	1967	1969	Acquired by Electronic Memories & Magnetics		[24][25][26]
Calcomp	United States	1972	1979	HDD assets sold to Xerox		[27]
Calluna Technology	Scotland	1992	2001	Dissolution		[28][29]
Cardiff Peripherals	United States	1987	?	?		[30]
Century Data Systems	United States	1968	1972	Acquired by CalComp in 1972; later sold to Xerox in 1979		[27]
CII-Honeywell-Bull	France	1975	1989	HDD business acquired by Seagate Technology	Resold drives through partnership with Magnetic Peripherals; CII-Honeywell-Bull was itself a joint venture between Compagnie Internationale d'Informatique, Honeywell, and Groupe Bull	[31]
Cogito Systems	United States	1983	1985	Dissolution		[32][33]
Comport	United States	1988	1991	Dissolution		[34][35]
Computer Memories, Inc.	United States	1979	1986	Exited the HDD business
Computer Memory Devices	United States	1969	1971	Dissolution		[36][37][38]
Conner Peripherals	United States	1985	1996	Acquired by Seagate Technology
Cornice	United States	2000	2007	Dissolution		[39][40]
Data Disc	United States	1962	1977	Acquired by Datapoint		[41][42]
Data General	United States	1976	1989	?		[43][44]
Datapoint	United States	1977	1984	HDD assets sold to Xebec Corporation		[42][45]
Dataproducts	United States	1962	?	Exited the HDD business
Data Recording Instrument	United Kingdom	1970	1988	Acquired by FKI	First company to manufacture HDDs in Europe	[46][47][48]: 289
Data-Tech Memories	United States	1986	1989	Dissolution		[49][50]: 133
Diablo Systems	United States	1969	1972	Acquired by Xerox		[51]
Digital Equipment Corporation	United States	1969	1993	Exited the HDD business		[52]
Disc Tech One	United States	1983	1984	Acquired by Life Tech Industries		[53][54]
Disctron	United States	1982	1983	Dissolution	Spin-off of Computer & Communications Technology	[55][56]
DMA Systems	United States	1981	1985	Dissolution		[57]
DZU AD	Bulgaria	1968	1999	Dissolution	Originally a state-owned entity, later converted to private company; HDD assets dispersed between 1997 and 1999	[48]: 289 [58]
Ecol. 2	United States	1990	1993	Dissolution	Never produced any drives beyond prototypes	[59]
Electronic Memories & Magnetics	United States	1969	1985	Acquired by Titan Systems		[60][26]
Emulex	United States	1979	1992	HDD assets spun off as QLogic
Epson	Japan	1985	1987	Left the HDD business		[61][62]
Espert	South Korea	1990	?	Dissolution		[63]
ExcelStor Technology	China	2000	2008	Dissolution
Fuji Electric	Japan	1985	2011	Exited the HDD business		[64][65]
Fujitsu	Japan	1963	2009	HDD assets sold to Toshiba		[66][67]
General Electric	United States	1962	1970	HDD assets sold to Honeywell		[68][69]
GS Magicstor	China	2003	?	Dissolution		[70]
Hewlett-Packard	United States	1979	1996	Exited the HDD business	Manufactured the first 1.3-inch HDDs	[71][72]
HGST	United States	2003	2018	Acquired by Western Digital	Hitachi's HDD business after acquiring IBM's HDD assets
Hitachi	United States	1967	2018	HDD assets sold to Western Digital		[66]
Hokushin Electric Works	Japan	1980	?	?		[48]: 289 [73]
Hyosung	South Korea	?	?	?		[50]: 138
IBM	United States	1956	2003	HDD assets sold to Hitachi	Inventors of the HDD; HDD assets briefly spun off to AdStar between 1992 and 1995
Imprimis (CDC)	United States	1975	1989	Acquired by Seagate Technology	Joint venture between Control Data and CII-Honeywell-Bull; Internally known as Magnetic Peripherals, Inc
Information Storage Systems	United States	1969	1973	Acquired by Itel Corporation; later sold to Sperry Univac		[74][75][76]
Intégral Peripherals	United States	1990	1998	Acquired by H&Q Asia Pacific	Manufactured the first 1.8-inch HDDs	[77][78]
International Memories	United States	1977	1984	Merged with Onyx Systems to become Dorado Micro Systems, later Onyx-IMI; left the HDD business in 1984; HDD business sold to Fujhin Electronic Computer Co. in 1985		[79][80][81][82][83]
Iomec	United States	1969	1975	Acquired by Data 100		[84][85]
Iomega	United States	1995	2008	Acquired by EMC Corporation
ИЗОТ [ru] (English: ISOT)	Bulgaria	1962	1991	Dissolution	State-owned entity
Josephine County Technology	United States	1984	1986	Dissolution		[86][87][88]
JT Storage	United States	1994	1999	Dissolution
JVC	Japan	1986	?	?		[89]
Kalok	United States	1987	1994	Acquired by JT Storage		[90][91]
Kennedy	United States	1977	1988	Dissolution		[92][93]
Kyocera	Japan	1984	1991	Exited the HDD business		[94][95]
LaPine Technologies	United States	1984	1987	Bankruptcy		[96][97][98]
Librascope	United States	1961	1968	Acquired by Singer Corporation		[99]
Marshall Laboratories	United States	1968	1969	Dissolution		[100][101]
Matsushita	Japan	1989	2000 ca.	Exited the HDD business	Originally as a licensee of Quantum	[102]
Maxtor	United States	1982	2006	Acquired by Seagate Technology
Memorex	United States	1968	1981	Acquired by Burroughs Corporation; HDD assets later sold to Toshiba	Manufactured the first HDD subsystems that were plug-compatible with IBM's
Microcomputer Memories	United States	1983	1986	Bankruptcy		[103][104]
Micropolis	United States	1986	1996	HDD assets sold to Singapore Technology
Microscience International	United States	1982	1993	Bankruptcy		[105][106]
MiniScribe	United States	1980	1990	Acquired by Maxtor
MiniStor Peripherals	United States	1991	1995	Bankruptcy	Manufactured the first PC Card HDDs	[107][108]
Mitsubishi	Japan	1968	2002	HDD assets sold to Showa Denko		[66][109]
Mitsumi Electric	Japan	?	?	?
NCR	United States	1964	?	?		[110]
NEC	Japan	1965	2002	Exited the HDD business		[66][111]
Newbury Data	United Kingdom	1984	1988	Acquired by FKI		[112][113]
Nippon Electric Industry	Japan	1983	?	?		[114]
Nippon Peripherals	Japan	1971	1986	Dissolution		[115][116][117]
Nomaï	France	1992	1998	Acquired by Iomega
Ohio Scientific	United States	1980	1980	Acquired by M/A-COM		[118]
Okidata	Japan	1973	1980	HDD business acquired by Ohio Scientific		[119][120][121]
Olivetti OPE	Italy	1981	?	Left the HDD business		[122][123]
Orca Technology	United States	1990	1992	Bankruptcy; HDD assets sold to Samsung Electronics in 1995		[124][125]
Otari	Japan	1985	?	Exited the HDD business		[126]
Pertec Computer	United States	1971	1987	Acquired by Triumph-Adler		[127][128]
Philips	Netherlands	?	?	?		[48]: 289
Plus Development	United States	1983	1993	Dissolution	Inventors of the hardcard
Potter Instrument	United States	1968	1975	Bankruptcy		[129][130][131]
PrairieTek	United States	1985	1991	Bankruptcy	Manufactured the first 2.5-inch HDDs
Priam	United States	1978	1991	HDD assets sold to Prima International
Peripheral Technology	United States	1985	1990	Dissolution		[132][133]
Quantum	United States	1980	2000	HDD assets sold to Maxtor
Ricoh	Japan	1985	?	Exited the HDD business		[134]
Rodime	Scotland	1979	1991	Exited the HDD business	Manufactured the first 3.5-inch HDDs
Rotating Memory Systems	United States	1981	1982	Acquired by Computer & Communications Technology		[135][136]
SAGEM	France	?	?	Exited the HDD business
Samsung Electronics	South Korea	1988	2011	HDD assets sold to Seagate Technology		[137][138]
Sequel	United States	1989	1991	Bankruptcy	Spin-off of Memorex's HDD business after the latter was acquired by Unisys	[139][140]
Shugart Associates	United States	1979	1985	Acquired by Xerox in 1977; assets liquidated in 1985
Siemens	Germany	?	?	?		[48]: 289
Storage Technology Corporation	United States	1969	2005	Acquired by Sun Microsystems
SyQuest Technology	United States	1982	1999	HDD assets sold to Iomega
Tandon	United States	1981	1988	HDD assets sold to Western Digital		[141][142]
TEAC	Japan	?	?	?
Texas Instruments	United States	1981	?	Exited the HDD business	First company to second-source Seagate's ST-506, the first 5.25-inch HDD	[143][144][145]
Tokico	Japan	?	?	?		[50]: 166
Tulin	United States	1982	1991	Dissolution		[146][147]
Vertex Peripherals	United States	1982	1985	Acquired by Priam Corporation		[148][149]
Xebec	United States	1974	?	?	Originally named Microcomputer Systems Corporation; 1410 SCSI controller formed the basis of IBM PC's hard disk controller	[150][151]
YE-Data	Japan	?	1995	Exited the HDD business		[50]: 169–170 [152]

See also

• History of hard disk drives
• List of computer hardware manufacturers
• List of hard disk manufacturers
• List of solid-state drive manufacturers