Seagate Ratchets Up Support for System Builders with New Campaign to Drive Adoption of High-Capacity Storage with Windows Vista

Targets distributors and solution providers with training, customizable tools and channel programs designed to boost revenue and profits

SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif.-Seagate Technology (NYSE:STX) today unveiled the hard drive industry’s most comprehensive toolkit designed to help system builders boost profits and capitalize on the market transition to Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system. The toolkit gives distributors and solution providers a new level of support to market and sell high-capacity storage with Windows Vista.

Seagate is providing the support necessary to deliver the latest, most powerful PCs, notebooks, and backup storage solutions for its broad base of customers. Among other benefits, these new resources help system builders match the Seagate desktop, notebook or external hard drive to the right version of Windows Vista - Ultimate, Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, and Enterprise - and build systems tailored to their customers’ application requirements.

“Microsoft is pleased Seagate is offering drives that help increase Windows Vista users’ productivity by offering high-capacity, easy to access storage solutions for valuable data,” said Trina Carlstrom, senior product manager at Microsoft. “We are glad Seagate is continuing these efforts and supporting the channel with a range of initiatives and programs.”

With Windows Vista, end users can create, store, share and protect large amounts of information, driving the need for systems with high-capacity storage. Windows Vista lets users:

• Connect, work efficiently, and carry and share content using mobile devices, laptop computers and wireless networks

• Accelerate restoring a complete PC or updating a new computer

• Streamline automatically scheduled and network backups • Find, manage and archive email more easily through new search capabilities

• Manage and store large amounts of photo files

• Enjoy sophisticated, graphics-rich games

“The combination of Seagate storage and Windows Vista, coupled with Seagate’s comprehensive sales and marketing support, is a boon for solution providers,” said Todd Swank, VP of Marketing at Nortech, one of the largest white-box system builders in the U.S. “This powerful mix promises to help us increase revenue and margins with new and existing customers, offer custom storage solutions built on Windows Vista, support and protect the increased amount of a user’s digital content through Windows Vista’s new features, and expand our consulting and support services.”

Personal computers powered by Seagate’s Barracuda family of drives are especially suited for use with Windows Vista, providing up to 1TB of storage and enabling users to expand the capabilities of desktop PCs in the home and office. Momentus 5400 PSD, Seagate’s 2.5-inch hybrid hard drive combining traditional rotating storage with flash memory, delivers faster boot-up and performance when running Windows Vista in laptop PCs. And with Seagate’s FreeAgent family of external drives, backup/restore, storage transport, and expansion capabilities of any system are enhanced further with Windows Vista.

Seagate’s storage sales and marketing toolkit serves as a valuable and customizable resource, enabling solution providers to better educate, market and sell the reliable and capacity-rich solutions their customers want. The kit includes a range of reference materials including white papers, brochures, sell sheets, a solutions guide, fact sheets, and FAQs. The program, offered exclusively through the Seagate Partner Program (SPP), a channel program that is consistently reviewed as one of the best in the industry, is designed to help solution providers close more sales and deliver better support. For information about the SPP including information on how to sign up to become a member, visit spp.seagate.com.