View source for SyQuest Technology

{{Short description|Defunct American storage equipment manufacturer}}
{{distinguish|SciQuest}}

{{Infobox company
| name = SyQuest Technology
| logo = SyQuest logo.svg{{!}}class=skin-invert
| type = [[Public company|Public]]
| industry = Data storage
| founded = {{Start date and age|1982}} in [[Fremont, California]], United States
| founder = {{ubl|Syed Iftikar|Ben Alaimo|Bill Krajewski|Anil Nigam|George Toldi}}
| defunct = {{End date|2003}}
| fate = Partially acquired by [[Iomega]]
| num_employees = 
| num_employees_year = <!-- Year of num_employees data (if known) -->
}}

'''SyQuest Technology, Inc.''' ({{NASDAQ was |SYQT}})<ref name=SyQuestBankrupt.NYT>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/04/business/company-news-troubled-syquest-technology-suspends-its-operations.html
|title=Troubled SyQuest Technology suspends its operations
|date=November 4, 1998}}</ref> was an early entrant into the [[hard disk drive]] market for [[personal computers]]. Its earliest products were the SQ306R, a 5&nbsp;MB 3.9" (100&nbsp;mm) cartridge disk drive and associated Q-Pak cartridge for [[IBM XT]] compatibles.<ref>{{cite journal  |journal=Mini Micro Systems
|last=Roman  |first=Andrew  |date=June 1982
|title=3.9-in. Winchester features removable media 
|pages=239–244}}</ref> Subsequently a non-removable medium version was announced, the SQ306F.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/syquest/brochures/SQ3xxF_Data_Sheet_198309xx.pdf|title=SQ306F, SQ312F, SQ325F Data Sheet}}</ref>
  
For many years, SyQuest was the most popular means of transferring large [[desktop publishing|desktop publisher]] documents such as advertisements to [[printer (publisher)|professional printer]]s. SyQuest marketed its products as able to give personal computer users "endless" hard drive space for data-intensive applications like desktop publishing, Internet information management, pre-press, multimedia, audio, video, [[digital photography]], fast backup, data exchange and archiving, along with confidential data security and easy portability for the road.<ref name="FOLDOC">{{foldoc|SyQuest+Technology,+Inc.}}</ref>

The introduction of lower-cost options like the [[Zip drive]] which offered similar capacity, and later the [[CD-R]] which was much less expensive once it reached mass-market, seriously eroded SyQuest's sales and the company went bankrupt in 1998. Sales of their existing inventory continued until 2003.

==History==
[[File:44mbdrive.jpg|thumb|SyQuest 44&nbsp;MB – 5.25" removable hard disk. Dimensions are 131.38mm × 131.38mm x12.85mm high.]]
The company was founded on January 27, 1982<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/syquest/brochures/SyQuest_Background198311xx.pdf | title=SYQUEST TECHNOLOGY BACKGROUND INFORMATION | date=November 1983 | website=www.bitsavers.org}}</ref> by Syed Iftikar who had been a founder of [[Seagate Technology|Seagate]],<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.forbes.com/1997/12/09/feat_side1.html|title=Sy's quest|work=[[Forbes]] |accessdate= 5 July 2010|date=9 December 1997}}</ref> along with Ben Alaimo, Bill Krajewski, Anil Nigam and George Toldi.<ref name=SyQuest.S3Hist>{{Cite web|url=http://s3.computerhistory.org/groups/ds-syquest-sq306-q100.pdf|title=SyQuest SQ306 Q100, 1982}}</ref>

The company was named partially after the founder, Syed Iftikar, because of a company meeting wherein it was decided that "SyQuest" ought to be a shortened name for "Sy's Quest".

The company announced its first product family of 3.9" (100&nbsp;mm) cartridge disk drives and associated Q-Pak cartridges at the 1982 [[National Computer Conference]], surprising observers with the low price of $750 for the drive and $35 for a cartridge.<ref name="morgan198209">{{Cite magazine |last=Morgan |first=Chris |date=September 1982 |title=NCC Report |url=https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1982-09/page/n58/mode/1up?view=theater |access-date=2024-12-29 |magazine=BYTE |pages=58–61}}</ref> They achieved limited success in government markets where removable media were required for security purposes.

In 1986, SyQuest announced the SQ555 and its SQ400 associated cartridge, a 44&nbsp;MB 5¼-inch removable cartridge hard disk drive, using the industry standard 130&nbsp;mm disk as its medium.<ref>{{cite journal  |journal=Electronic News
 |title=[Unknown title]  |date=June 23, 1986  |page=16}}</ref> Double capacity versions, the SQ5110 and SQ800 were introduced in 1991. This generation of products became the ''de facto'' standard in the Apple [[Macintosh]] world to store, transfer and backup large amounts of data such as generated by graphic artists, musicians and engineers.<ref>{{cite journal
 |first=Syed  |last=Iftikar  |date=March 13, 1992  |title=To our stockholders
 |journal=SyQuest Technology 1991 Annual Report  |pages=2}}</ref>

SyQuest went public on the NASDAQ in 1991.<ref name=RA90etc.CHM>{{cite web  |website=Computer History Museum
|url=http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Thin_Film_Memory_Media/Thin_Film_Media.oral_history.2006.102657957.pdf
|title=Oral History Panel on Hard Disk Drive Transition to Thin Film Media
|date=April 17, 2006}}</ref>

===Bankruptcy===
In early 1996, the company cut 60% of its workforce;<ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/03/business/company-news-syquest-to-cut-60-of-work-force-and-post-a-loss.html
|title=SyQuest to cut 60% of work force and post a loss
|date=February 3, 1996}}</ref> later that year, company namesake Syed Iftikar was fired "in a management shakeup."<ref>{{cite news
|newspaper=[[BizJournals]].com (San Jose)
|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1997/07/07/story7.html
|title=SyQuest charges founder with theft of trade secrets 
|author=Pete Barlas  |date=July 6, 1997}}</ref>

After 1997, SyQuest did not fare well in the market. Their core desktop publishing customers began increasingly to use [[CD-R]] media and [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]] to transfer files, while [[Iomega]]'s [[Zip drive]]s dominated the [[small office/home office]] (SOHO) market. Over the period 1995 to 1997, sales declined, resulting in a series of losses. In the first quarter of 1997 those losses had been reduced to $6.8 million with net revenues increasing to $48.3 million. This compares to a net loss of $33.8 million, or $2.98 per share, on net revenues of $78.7 million for the same period the year before.<ref name="FOLDOC" />

They company laid off half of its staff in August 1998 before filing for bankruptcy by the end of the year.<ref name=SyQuestdownhill.NYT98>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/08/business/company-news-syquest-technology-to-cut-50-of-staff.html |title=SyQuest Technology to cut 50% of staff |date=August 8, 1998}}</ref><ref name=SyQuestBankrupt.NYT/> Portions of the company were purchased by [[Iomega]] Corp. in January 1999, with SyQuest retaining the right to sell its remaining inventory on condition of renaming themselves SYQT. While the company's original ''syquest.com'' website continued to provide technical support for its original products until 2003, its rebranded ''syqt.com'' website became a digital disk drive and media retailer. By 2009 that website ceased to exist, with its domain (www.syqt.com) put up for sale in the Chinese market.

==Products==
Syquest's product line included such devices as the following:<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/syquest/brochures|title = Index of /PDF/Syquest/Brochures}}</ref>

Fixed Media Drives (unformatted capacity):
* SQ306F fixed-disk hard drive. 6.38&nbsp;MB. 5.0&nbsp;MBit/s. 3&nbsp;m/s track-to-track. 3,547&nbsp;rpm. 12,000&nbsp;bpi. 306&nbsp;cyl, 2&nbsp;heads, 1&nbsp;disc.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/syquest/brochures/SQ306_Brochure_Sep82.pdf | title=SyQuest - SQ306 | website=www.bitsavers.org}}</ref>
* SQ312F fixed-disk hard drive. 12.75&nbsp;MB.
* SQ325F fixed-disk hard drive. 25.5&nbsp;MB using MFM encoding. Specs: 612 cylinders, 4 heads, no WPC, no RWC, fastest step rate.
* SQ338F fixed-disk hard drive. 38.2&nbsp;MB. Supports MFM or RLL encoding. Specs: 615 cylinders, 6 heads, no WPC, no RWC, fastest step rate.

Removable Media Drives (formatted capacity):
* SQ306RD drive/SQ100 disk. 5&nbsp;MB using [[Modified Frequency Modulation|MFM]] encoding.
* SQ312RD drive/SQ200 disk (SyQuest used the SQ200 model number again for a desktop drive in 1994). 10&nbsp;MB using MFM encoding.
* SQ319RD drive/SQ300 disk. 15&nbsp;MB using [[Run Length Limited|RLL]] encoding (10&nbsp;MB using MFM encoding).
* SQ2542 drive/disk – 42&nbsp;MB 2.5" The Iota series.
* SQ555 drive/SQ400 disk – 44&nbsp;MB 5.25". Internal SCSI. Also used in the Atari Megafile 44 ([http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n8/syquest.html Review in Atari Start Magazine March 1990]) and sold as part of the [[E-mu Systems]] RM45 – Removable Media Storage System.
* SQ5110 drive/SQ800 disk – 88&nbsp;MB 5.25". Internal SCSI. Compatible with SQ400 disk.
* SQ5200C drive/SQ2000 disk – 200&nbsp;MB 5.25" internal SCSI. The external desktop version of the SQ5200C was named SQ200, not to be confused with the earlier model SQ200 10&nbsp;MB disks. Compatible with SQ400 and SQ800 disks.
* SQ3105 drive/SQ310 disk – 105&nbsp;MB.
* SQ3270 drive/SQ327 disk – 270&nbsp;MB. Compatible with SQ310 disk.
* [[EZ135]] aka EZDrive 135/EZ135 disk – 135&nbsp;MB 3.5" removable-disk hard drive. Competitor to Iomega's [[Zip drive]]. This was available in SCSI, IDE and parallel port versions.
* EZFlyer aka EZFlyer 230 drive/EZ230 disk – 230&nbsp;MB 3.5" removable-disk hard drive. EZ135 compatible. Positioned as an upgrade to the EZ135.
* SyJet drive/SQ1500 disk – 1.5&nbsp;GB removable-disk hard drive. Competitor to Iomega's [[Jaz drive]]).
* [[SparQ drive]]/SparQ disk – 1.0&nbsp;GB 3.5" removable-disk hard drive. Lower cost per MB than the SyJet.
* Quest drive/Quest disc – a 4.7&nbsp;GB removable-disk hard drive. [https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=Quest+disk&i=50072,00.asp PC Magazine definition]. Available for a short time in 1998.

The 5.25" removable-disk hard drives with 44&nbsp;MB, 88&nbsp;MB, and 200&nbsp;MB capacities were mostly used on Macintosh systems via the SCSI interface.

==See also==
* [[Avatar Systems]], competitor in the removable hard drive market
* [[Bernoulli Box]], a competing storage technology
* [[Jaz drive]], a competing storage technology

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://computing-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Syquest Syquest] at thefreedictionary.com
* [http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Iftikar_Syed/Iftikar_Syed_all.oral_history.2007.102658066.pdf Interview of Syed Iftikar (SyQuest member)] at computerhistory.org

{{Hard disk drive manufacturers}}
{{Seagate Technology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Syquest Technology}}
[[Category:1982 establishments in the United States]]
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[[Category:American companies established in 1982]]
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[[Category:Defunct computer companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Defunct computer hardware companies]]
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