Backup Capacity On-Demand Upgrades Available Now for Exabyte VXA-172 Drives, World's First Expandable Tape Hardware.

BOULDER, Colo. -- Exabyte Corp. (OTCBB:EXBY), the leading innovator in tape backup and recovery systems, today announced the availability of electronic Capacity On-Demand (C.O.D.) for its VXA-172 Packet Drive and VXA-172 PacketLoader 1x10.

The world's first and only tape drive to offer expandable capacity, the VXA-172 was designed to enable growing businesses to keep pace with their data protection needs with a "pay as you grow" model. The VXA-172 platform allows users for the first time to buy only what they need and increase capacity instantly with an electronic upgrade. These upgrades are now available through computer resellers for $350 for a drive upgrade and $600 for the PacketLoader upgrade (estimated U.S. street prices).

With this simple, three-step electronic C.O.D. upgrade, customers can almost double the capacity of their VXA-172 Packet Drive, from 172 to 320 gigabytes.(a) The VXA-172 PacketLoader can be upgraded from 1.7 to 3.2 terabytes.(a) Customers who purchase the upgrade will also receive a high capacity, 320GB tape cartridge.

"Exabyte continues to enhance its VXA product line with the introduction of electronic Capacity On-Demand upgrades for the VXA-172 drive," said Clipper Group Director of Enterprise Information Assurance Dianne McAdam. "Customers can purchase the VXA-172 Packet Drive today and easily upgrade to larger capacities tomorrow. This innovation ensures customers that the investment they make today will allow them to keep pace with their growing data requirements in the future."

"Unlike tape devices of the past, such as DDS/DAT and DLT tape that have fixed capacity limits resulting in built-in obsolescence, Exabyte's VXA-172 products were engineered to grow as business data grows," said Tom Ward, Exabyte president and CEO. "The small to midsized business typically purchases a server with more than 100 gigabytes of disk space, so we took into account the need to match the server to the storage in terms of initial investment and future capacity growth. The 'pay as you grow' architecture of our VXA products is the only one that makes sense for this market segment."

Built on Exabyte's award-winning VXA Packet Technology, the VXA-172 Packet Drive and VXA-172 PacketLoader 1x10 provide affordable, easy backup and recovery for critical business information using reliable, large capacity, high-speed tape cartridges that can be removed to an off-site location for safekeeping. The standalone VXA-172 Packet Drive provides a small business with a simple tape device that accepts one tape cartridge at a time. For organizations wanting unattended backup, the VXA-172 Packet Loader has ten cartridge slots and a robotic mechanism for automatic, unattended operation.

All VXA-172 products come with three-year advanced exchange (ADEX) as part of Exabyte's standard warranty and support program.

VXA Packet Technology -- Setting the bar in reliability

The key to Exabyte's award-winning VXA technology is that instead of traditional, vulnerable data tracks, data is recorded in small sections or packets, similar to how data is delivered over the Internet. This efficient method of recording data provides superior capacity, speed and error-proof integrity when restoring data. As the only storage media format to use Packet Technology, VXA is regarded as the worldwide leader in capacity, speed, reliability and value for small-to-midsize businesses. VXA is so reliable that it is up to 180 times more likely to properly restore data than other tape formats such as DDS/DAT -- even from a damaged tape. VXA tape cartridges have been disaster-tested under the most severe conditions -- including violent vibration, blowing volcanic dust, freezing inside blocks of ice, boiling water and even hot coffee -- to prove they can provide reliable and complete data restores.

About Exabyte Corporation

Exabyte Corporation is the leading innovator and provider of tape storage products. For more than 20 years, the company has raised industry standards in engineering quality for tape drives and tape automation. Exabyte's groundbreaking VXA Packet technology is the capacity, speed, reliability, and value leader in small-to-midsize business tape storage and tape automation solutions. With patented and award-winning VXA Packet Technology and ExaBotics(TM), Exabyte's VXA(TM) and LTO(TM) (Ultrium(TM)) products are ideally suited for SMB and departmental servers, workstations, LANs, and SANs. Exabyte has a worldwide network of OEM, distributor and reseller partners that share the company's commitment to innovation and customer service, including IBM, Apple, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Fujitsu Ltd., Imation, Tech Data, and Ingram Micro. The company is also a founding member of the VXA Alliance, an industry group focused on providing information and education to the marketplace on the benefits of the VXA Packet tape format. For more information, call 1-800-EXABYTE or visit www.exabyte.com.

(a) Data capacities and transfer rates assume a compression ratio of 2:1. Actual compression varies depending on the nature of the data and the drive and media performance.

Exabyte and VXA are registered trademarks, and ExaBotics is a trademark of Exabyte Corp. Others may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.