Al Shugart, regarded as the father of the disk drive industry, has died, aged 76, in Monterey, California, following heart surgery. He helped create the first hard disk drive at IBM, founded both Shugart and Seagate and helped make the personal computer truly useful. Shugart’s business style was a bit unusual:
…a former colleague, Finis Connor, called him in 1979. Connor saw that the new personal computer market needed a small cheap hard drive. Together they started Shugart Technologies, to supply one. By May 1980 they were able to unveil a 5MB 5.25-inch hard drive at a breakthrough price of only $600.
Shugart hoped to be sued by Xerox, which owned Shugart Associates, generating worldwide publicity for his new venture. Alas, Xerox was slow off the mark.
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