Hitachi Ships Millionth Perpendicular Recording Hard Drive, 4 Million Expected by Year End.

High-Reliability Product Exceeds Volume Ramp & Product Qualification Expectations

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi) has successfully ramped its perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) manufacturing to high volume, announcing, today, delivery of the one millionth PMR hard drive after only six months of regular production. Customer acceptance and accelerated product qualifications are also indicative of the success of Hitachi's PMR program. With strong customer demand and the stability of the technology at high volume, Hitachi expects to produce more than four million PMR hard drives by the end of 2006.

Hitachi began manufacturing PMR-based products in May of this year when the company debuted the Travelstar 5K160 - the most reliable and technically-advanced 2.5-inch hard drive on the market. That reliability claim has borne out as Hitachi achieved high volume more quickly than with any other 2.5-inch product to date - a considerable achievement given PMR is a relatively nascent technology when compared to existing longitudinal magnetic recording technology, which has been in use in hard drives for half a century. PMR production will represent roughly 35 percent of Hitachi's fourth quarter 2.5-inch hard drive output. Hitachi expects to fully transition its 2.5-inch product line to PMR by the end of 2007.

Hitachi separately today previewed two new 2.5-inch products, with storage capacities in excess of 200 gigabytes, which are expected to be delivered in 2007 using PMR technology. Also announced today is Hitachi's 36 percent second-to-third-quarter growth in the 2.5-inch segment, due in part to the strong acceptance of the Travelstar 5K160.

"The transition to perpendicular recording technology is essential for continued growth of the hard drive industry, which is why Hitachi invested significant time and resources to achieve a solid product in the Travelstar 5K160," said Shinjiro Iwata, chief marketing officer, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. "Hitachi's ability to quickly ramp production of our first PMR product should give customers great confidence in the strength of the product, and provides a strong foundation for our next-generation 2.5-inch PMR products, which are currently under development for release in 2007."

"ASUS Commercial and Mobile TV notebook series A6, F2 and F3 are designed to deliver an exceptional processing performance that meets business demands as well as fulfills digital entertainment enjoyment," said Tony Chen, General Manager of ASUS Notebook Business. "The high reliability that Hitachi has demonstrated with its Travelstar 5K160 - both through independent stress testing and an extremely fast volume ramp - gave ASUS tremendous confidence to integrate it to our models for total customer satisfaction."

Hitachi's 2.5-inch hard drives are produced in Thailand. PMR media, which are key to the high-volume ramp of the Travelstar 5K160, are produced in San Jose, California and Shenzhen, China.

Achieving superior reliability results on the Travelstar 5K160 involved major changes to both the write head and the recording media. Hitachi closely integrated development of the media and head to optimize their performance, which is a key enabler to the stability and, thus, significantly accelerated manufacturing ramp of the product.

In addition, an exhaustive internal verification and testing process also contributed to the successful launch of Hitachi's first PMR product. A typical product launch might involve the production of several thousand drives, of which several hundred would go into intense stress testing. In the case of the Travelstar 5K160, Hitachi produced approximately 20,000 drives and stress-tested more than 5,000 with impressive results, demonstrating reliability characteristics which exceeded Hitachi's previous notebook hard-drive generation - the Travelstar 5K100 - which has the best-of-breed reliability performance.

About Hitachi Global Storage Technologies

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is a storage technology leader, founded in 2003 through the combination of Hitachi's and IBM's hard disk drive businesses. Hitachi GST enables users to fully engage in the digital lifestyle by providing high-value hard drives in formats suitable for the office, on the road and in the home.

With its legacy in hard drive invention, Hitachi GST will lead the industry in celebrating the hard drive's golden anniversary in 2006. After five decades of innovation, the hard drive has had a profound effect on the computing and consumer electronics industries. That heritage lives on at Hitachi GST through products that define the standard for hard drive miniaturization, capacity, performance and reliability.

With more than 30,000 employees worldwide, Hitachi GST offers a comprehensive range of hard drive products for desktop computers, high-performance servers, notebooks and consumer devices. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.hitachigst.com.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd., (NYSE:HIT) (TOKYO:6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 356,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2005 (ended March 31, 2006) consolidated sales totaled 9,464 billion yen ($80.9 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors including information systems, electronic devices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.

" Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Statements in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, without limitation, statements regarding the company's expectations, objectives, anticipations, plans, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding: projected manufacturing of 4 million PMR hard drives by the end of 2006. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward looking statements include risks and uncertainties, such as: any unforeseen event or any unforeseen manufacturing system failures; possible delays in developing and marketing new products; possible component parts shortages; employment issues at our manufacturing facilities; changes in customer needs; new products and services offerings by the company and its competitors; and other risks indicated in Hitachi, Ltd.'s filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.