HGST
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer storage devices |
| Predecessor | IBM's disk drive division |
| Founded | January 6, 2003 |
| Founder | Hitachi |
| Defunct | 2018 |
| Fate | Merged into Western Digital |
| Headquarters | California , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Hard disk drives, solid-state drives, external storage devices |
| Parent | Western Digital (from 2012) |
HGST, Inc. (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) specialized in manufacturing hard disk drives, solid-state drives, along with external storage devices and related services.
Originally established as a subsidiary of Hitachi following its purchase of IBM's disk drive division, HGST was later acquired by Western Digital in 2012. Due to regulatory requirements imposed by Chinese authorities, HGST continued to function independently until October 2015, when its operations began merging with Western Digital. By 2018, the HGST brand was retired, and all products were marketed under the Western Digital name.
History
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies came into existence on January 6, 2003, through the consolidation of the hard disk drive segments of IBM and Hitachi. Hitachi compensated IBM with US$2.05 billion for its HDD division.
On March 8, 2012, Western Digital completed the acquisition of HGST for $3.9 billion in cash plus 25 million WD shares valued around $900 million. Hitachi retained approximately a 10% stake in WD shares along with representation on the board. Due to antitrust concerns raised by China’s Ministry of Commerce, HGST was mandated to maintain operational independence, including separate product development and sales channels.
As part of this transaction, Western Digital and Toshiba swapped manufacturing assets: Toshiba obtained production equipment for 3.5-inch drives located in Shenzhen, China; meanwhile, WD acquired a factory in Thailand dedicated to 2.5-inch drives that had been inactive since the 2011 floods.
In November 2013, HGST introduced a helium-filled hard drive with a capacity of 6 TB. This was followed by a 10 TB helium-based drive launched in September 2014, which utilized shingled magnetic recording technology to enhance storage density.
Following regulatory clearance in October 2015, Western Digital started integrating HGST’s operations but was obligated to preserve the HGST brand and its sales organization for a minimum of two years. Manufacturing responsibilities were shared between HGST’s facility in Thailand and Western Digital’s plants in Thailand and Malaysia. By 2018, Western Digital announced the discontinuation of the HGST brand, consolidating all product lines—including Ultrastar—under its own branding.
Hard drives and solid-state drives
- Ultrastar – High-performance enterprise-class HDDs available in 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch formats featuring SCSI, Fibre Channel, SAS, and SATA interfaces; also includes Fibre Channel, SAS, and PCIe NVMe SSDs in both sizes. These are now sold under the Western Digital brand.
- Deskstar – Desktop-oriented 3.5-inch SATA hard drives that were phased out following the retirement of the HGST brand; replaced by WD Blue and Black HDD lines as well as WD Red models for NAS applications.
- Travelstar – Mobile-focused 2.5-inch SATA HDDs discontinued after the HGST brand was phased out; succeeded by WD Blue and Black versions for portable use.
- Endurastar – Durable 2.5-inch PATA or SATA hard drives designed primarily for automotive environments; discontinued after the HGST branding ended.
- CinemaStar – Drives sized at 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch tailored for consumer electronics featuring quiet operation and optimized for AV streaming; phased out and replaced by WD Purple and WD AV series.
External storage
- LifeStudio (now discontinued) combined external hard drives with photo management software along with a USB flash key.
- G-Technology external storage solutions, acquired in 2009, catered to multimedia professionals using Apple Macintosh platforms such as Final Cut Pro; currently rebranded as SanDisk Professional.
- The Touro product line provides cloud backup storage options.
See also
- Hitachi-LG Data Storage (HLDS) – a collaborative enterprise between Hitachi and LG, specializing in the production of DVD and Blu-ray optical drives
- Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) – provider of modular enterprise storage solutions, including software and related services
- Articles with short description
- Hitachi subsidiaries
- Western Digital
- 2003 establishments in California
- 2015 disestablishments in California
- 2012 mergers and acquisitions
- Computer companies established in 2003
- Computer companies disestablished in 2018
- Defunct computer companies based in California
- Defunct computer companies of the United States
- Defunct computer hardware companies
- Electronics companies established in 2003
- Electronics companies disestablished in 2018