FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MILPITAS, CA -- May 17, 1999 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced a breakthrough in giant magnetoresistive (GMR) recording technology, with the design and fabrication of GMR heads that achieved an areal density of 20.9 gigabits per square inch. The integrated read and write pico heads utilize an innovative sensor structure incorporating new materials and deposition techniques. The heads were manufactured at Read-Rite's GMR production facility in Fremont, California.

"We plan on using elements of this innovative structure in customer products next year and we anticipate this breakthrough design will be extendable beyond 30 gigabits per square inch," said Dr. Mark E. Re, senior vice president of research and development. "Read-Rite's unique GMR design and materials result in a sensor with twice the read-back sensitivity we achieved in our September 1998 areal density demonstration of 13.5 gigabits per square inch," he added.

The areal density of 20.9 gigabits per square inch was achieved with linear densities of over 480,000 bits per inch and track densities of over 43,500 tracks per inch. The on-track error rate was less than one error in over a billion bits read with over 16% off-track capability. The data rate used for the demonstration was 175 megabits per second and the sensitivity of the heads was 5.1 millivolts per micron. The areal density achieved on the integrated read and write pico head equates to over 29 gigabytes per 3 and one-half inch platter, which is over four times the per disk capacity of today's commercially available drives.

Read-Rite Corporation is one of the world's leading independent manufacturers of recording heads, head gimbal assemblies (HGAs) and head stack assemblies (HSAs) for disk drives and magnetoresistive heads for tape drives. The company is headquartered in Milpitas, California and has operations in Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. The company's home page on the World Wide Web can be reached at http://www.readrite.com.

This news release contains statements which include forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934, as amended, and is subject to the . safe harbor. created by those sections. These statements include, but are not limited to: that the company plans on using elements of this new GMR design in customer products next year; and that the company anticipates that this new design will be extendable beyond 30 gigabits per square inch. The company. s actual results for future periods could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to: the company may be unsuccessful in incorporating elements of this new design in GMR products its sells to its customers; the company may not succeed in extending the areal density beyond 20.9 gigabits per square inch; and the other factors described in the company. s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for fiscal 1998 and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for the first and second quarter of Fiscal Year 1999 ended December 27, 1998 and March 28, 1999 respectively. Read-Rite undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of such statements.