MXO Maxtor Corp

New Poll Finds Nearly Half of U.S. Adult Computer Users Have Lost Valuable Data, But Too Few Protect the Personal Content and Files Stored on Multiple Devices MILPITAS, Calif., May 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- We live in a world of increasingly ubiquitous digital content, and we enjoy and share it via a broad number of in-home and portable devices. Often this content is self-generated or created by our friends and family, including personal photos and other media files that are irreplaceable. Yet nearly half of adult U.S. computer users who have digital content stored on their computer run the risk of losing their digital files forever because they don't back them up to external devices or media, according to a new U.S. adult consumer survey(1) of computer users, sponsored by Maxtor Corporation (NYSE:MXO), the consumer storage innovator. The poll of 2,604 U.S. adult computer users conducted by Harris Interactive(R) in early May, finds that based on the six types of digital data and personal files listed in the survey, personal photos are the most valued type of digital content (32 percent), followed by written documents (22 percent) and financial/business records (14 percent). Nearly one third of those polled who have digital content stored on their computer (33 percent) consider their digital content to be "priceless," but nearly half of them (46 percent) never make backup copies of their data to external devices or media. The risk of loss increases as the volume of digital content grows, and the new poll shows widespread use of multiple computing and media devices today. The majority of U.S. adult computer users (72 percent) now own digital still or video cameras, and nearly half of them (45 percent) own or use two or more desktop or laptop computers in their homes. The vast majority of those polled (75 percent) store digital photos on their laptops, desktops or other portable computing devices, and nearly one third (30 percent) have 200 or more digital photos stored. The top method for sharing digital photos with friends, family or co-workers is via email, and over a third of U.S. adult computer users who share digital photos (38 percent) now do so by posting or uploading them to a website. Half of them (50 percent) print out the photos to share with others. "Educating consumers and small business owners about the importance of backing up their valuable digital content has become a top priority for Maxtor," said Stacey Lund, vice president of marketing, Maxtor Branded Products Group. "As digital media continues to explode, and the complexity of managing that content across multiple devices increases, we've focused on making it nearly effortless to automatically protect and manage files. Why gamble with your digital life?" Nearly half of respondents (43 percent) have lost important data or digital files stored on computers due to a virus, hardware or software malfunction, or some other reason. When asked to put a price tag on their digital content, including the time it would take to recreate that content if it was lost, more than half (55 percent) of U.S. adult computer users would consider this an investment worth more than $1,000. The most frequently cited reason by those who said they never back up their data is that they are not sure how to do it or that backup is too technical (cited by 35 percent). Twenty-nine percent said they don't think it's important enough to worry about, 14 percent think it takes too much time, and 11 percent don't back up because they believe that backup devices and services are too costly. Among the survey respondents who said they never back up their data, 11 percent said they never knew they had to do it. "With today's affordable, intuitive consumer and small business storage and backup solutions such as our Maxtor OneTouch(TM) line or the Maxtor Shared Storage(TM) family of products, many of the behaviors and fears uncovered in our latest national survey can be easily remedied," continued Lund. "As the consumer backup industry leader, our goal is to educate our customers before their priceless data is lost." As part of its ongoing consumer education campaign, Maxtor is sponsoring its 2nd annual Backup Awareness Month (http://www.backupawareness.com/) in the U.S. during June 2006. Through a broad array of special events and marketing programs, Maxtor is promoting a five-step "best practices" program for data protection: (1) Develop a backup schedule. Back up data daily or at minimum weekly. (2) Back up everything. Today, users can easily backup all of their computer hard drive data. There's no need to spend time sorting through every file or folder. Invest in a storage solution that's twice the size of your internal hard drive to give your system room to grow. (3) Do it automatically -- set it and forget it. Use a solution that's easy to set up and provides automatic backups. (4) Rotate backups, which provide added protection in case of an earthquake, fire, flood or theft. Use two drives and rotate one offsite. (5) Don't procrastinate. Unfortunately, the need to back up data is often a lesson learned from an unfortunate experience. Don't let it happen to you. Back up your computer and save the day! Maxtor has also launched a new microsite (http://www.maxtorsolutions.com/) to help a wide variety of users -- from consumers to creative professionals to small business owners -- to better understand and select storage solutions that are a best fit for their individual needs. To listen to a podcast series that highlights Maxtor's latest innovations in network storage and backup solutions, please visit PodTech.net, http://podtech.net/?cat=39. About Maxtor Maxtor Corporation (http://www.maxtor.com/) is one of the world's leading suppliers of hard disk drives and consumer storage solutions. The company has an expansive line of storage products for desktop computers, storage systems, high-performance Intel-based servers, and consumer electronics. Maxtor has a reputation as a proven market leader, built by consistently providing high-quality products, services and support for its customers. Maxtor and its products can be found at http://www.maxtor.com/ or by calling toll-free 800-2-MAXTOR. Maxtor is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MXO. Note: Maxtor, Maxtor DriveLock and the Maxtor stylized logo are registered trademarks, and Maxtor OneTouch and Maxtor Shared Storage are trademarks of Maxtor Corporation. All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. (1) Survey Methodology - Harris Interactive(R) fielded the study on behalf of Maxtor Corporation May 3-5, 2006, via its QuickQuery(SM) online omnibus, interviewing a nationwide sample of 2,604 U.S. adult computer users aged 18 and older. Data were weighted to be representative of the total U.S. adult population of computer users on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and amount of time spent weekly using a computer. In theory, with a probability sample of this size, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the overall results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire population of U.S. adult computer users aged 18 and older had been polled with complete accuracy. Sampling error for the sub-samples of computer users who have digital content stored on their computer (2,264), those own/use a computer in their home (2,553), those who share digital photos (1,788) and those who never back up their data (896) is higher and varies. This online sample is not a probability sample. Harris Interactive Inc. (http://www.harrisinteractive.com/), based in Rochester, New York, is the 13th largest and the fastest-growing market research firm in the world, most widely known for The Harris Poll(R) and for its pioneering leadership in the online market research industry. Long recognized by its clients for delivering insights that enable confident business decisions, the Company blends the science of innovative research with the art of strategic consulting to deliver knowledge that leads to measurable and enduring value. Harris Interactive serves clients worldwide through its United States, Europe (http://www.harrisinteractive.com/europe) and Asia offices, its wholly-owned subsidiary Novatris in Paris, France (http://www.novatris.com/), and through an independent global network of affiliate market research companies. The Maxtor OneTouch and Maxtor Shared Storage solutions are elements of a user's overall backup solution and protection plan. For purposes of measuring disk drive storage capacity, one gigabyte (GB) represents one billion bytes and one terabyte (TB) represent one trillion bytes. This announcement relating to Maxtor may contain forward-looking statements concerning future technology, products incorporating that technology, and Maxtor's execution. These statements are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties which could materially affect the company's results, including, but not limited to, market demand for hard disk drives and network storage, integration of the company's products with products produced by others, the company's ability to execute future production ramps and utilize manufacturing assets efficiently, pricing, competition, and the significant uncertainty of market acceptance of new products and technologies, and the growth and implementation of home networking. These and other risk factors are contained in documents that the company files with the SEC, including the Form 10K for fiscal 2005 and its recent 10-Qs. Maxtor is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any responsibility to update or alter, its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. DATASOURCE: Maxtor Corporation CONTACT: Erin Hartin of Maxtor Public Relations, +1-303-678-2022, or , or Chris Knight of Maxtor Media Relations, +1-415-365-8524, or

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