MILPITAS, CA -- November 24, 1998 -- Read-Rite Corporation (Nasdaq: RDRT) today announced Maxtor Corporation (Nasdaq: MXTR) has qualified Read-Rite's magnetoresistive (MR) recording heads for its desktop hard disk drive program, supporting 4.3 GB per 3.5-inch disk. "We are very pleased Read-Rite has been selected as a major supplier for Maxtor's new DiamondMax 4320 MR hard drive program," said Alan S. Lowe, president and chief operating officer.

"Read-Rite is an important supplier of recording heads to Maxtor," said David Beaver, vice president worldwide materials at Maxtor. "We are pleased to be working with them on our new DiamondMax 4320 program," he added.

Read-Rite began shipping the MR heads in volume to Maxtor last month. The MR heads are being shipped as fully assembled headstack assemblies (HSAs) which contain up to eight MR heads, providing up to 17.2 GB per disk drive.

Maxtor Corp. develops, manufactures and markets hard disk drives for desktop computer systems. The fastest growing supplier of hard disk drives for the desktop personal computer market, Maxtor's current product line includes the DiamondMax 4320, the DiamondMax 3400, the DiamondMax Plus 2500 and the DiamondMax 2880 series of drives. Maxtor can be reached by phone at (800) 2-MAXTOR or on the Internet at www.maxtor.com.