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Exabyte Channel Program Reaches Milestone; ExaPartner Reseller Program Eclipses 1000 VAR Company Members as Demand for Exabyte's VXA Products Continues to Increase

BOULDER, Colo.--Sept. 27, 2004--Exabyte Corporation (OTCBB:EXBT), the leading innovator in tape backup, restore and archival systems, today announced that the number of resellers enrolled in its ExaPartner Reseller Program has exceeded 1,000, more than doubling the number of resellers enrolled in the last 12 months, as Exabyte's award-winning VXA product line has continued its market momentum. Exabyte, the exclusive provider of VXA Packet Technology, reported deliveries of VXA-2 drives and autoloaders have grown an average of 35 percent consecutively per quarter from the fourth quarter of 2003 through the second quarter of 2004, further demonstrating the strong acceptance of VXA Packet Technology as the new standard for tape back up and restore for the SMB and departmental markets.

The ExaPartner Program provides value-added resellers (VARs) with the products, pricing discounts, and technical and sales support that give them a highly profitable way to sell Exabyte tape products that meet customers' growing data storage needs. Designed to help VARs capitalize -- in terms of margin and market share -- on their customers' demand for reliable data storage solutions, the ExaPartner Program offers resellers three levels of participation -- Registered, Authorized and Premier -- with escalating pricing discounts, margins, and sales and technical support to ensure that VARs receive the tools they need to promote, sell and support Exabyte products.

"Successful VARs are always seeking the best possible solutions for their customer. When it comes to backup and restore, they have seen the same restore failures over and over with DDS and other outdated technologies," said Kerry Brock, Vice President of Marketing for Exabyte. "Because tape backup is the center of most businesses' disaster recovery plan, more and more VARs are turning to the power VXA Packet Technology as the most reliable tape restore available today, which has escalated enrollment in our ExaPartner Program."

Exabyte's award-winning Packet Technology enables VXA Packet drives, autoloaders and tapes to read and write data in packets just like the Internet, providing far superior restore integrity, exceptional transfer speeds and scalable capacity. VXA Packet drives and autoloaders deliver transfer speeds up to 43 GB per hour, allowing network administrators to backup 160 GB of data (equal to one VXA-2 tape) in less than four hours. With PerfectWrite and 4 level Reed-Solomon Error Correction, VXA products are up to 180x more likely to restore your data -- even from a damaged tape. Superior product reviews and adoption by major OEMs have established VXA Packet Technology as the new standard in tape backup.

Demand for VXA products has continued at a robust pace for more than a year, driven by the growth in the reseller channel, and also stimulated by increasingly strong sales through OEMs, such as IBM, Apple and Fujitsu Siemens. The introduction of the VXA-2 PacketLoader 1 x10 in February -- the fastest-selling automation product in the company's 19-year history -- was a contributing factor to the continued increase in VXA unit sales. The VXA-2 PacketLoader 1x10 is an ultra-compact 1u, rack-mountable automated backup and restore product, built with VXA Packet Technology and Exabyte's world-renowned robotics. With up to 1.6 terabytes of back-up capacity and 43.2 GB/hr transfer rate, the newest autoloader from Exabyte heralds a breakthrough in price, performance and capacity for this class of automation product.

"For 20 years, Exabyte has been a channel-centric company, moving product to market exclusively through channel partners," added Brock. "At Exabyte, our formula for success is simple: when our channel partners are successful, we are successful. The ExaPartner Program affirms that commitment by providing resellers with resources, support and commitment above and beyond that of other vendors."

For more information about Exabyte's VXA products, the ExaPartner Program, or to find an Exabyte reseller in your area, call 1-877-EXAPARTNER (1-877-392-7278) or visit www.exabyte.com.

About Exabyte Corporation

Exabyte Corporation (OTCBB:EXBT), now entering its 20th year, is a recognized pioneer and leading innovator in tape storage. Its heritage comprises an impressive list of industry "firsts," including the first manufacturer of tape drives to break the 1, 2, and 5 GB capacity barriers, the first to introduce 8mm tape drives and libraries, the first to offer native Fibre Channel drives and libraries, the first to offer FireWire tape drives and libraries and the first and only manufacturer to offer VXA Packet Technology, which enables its VXA Packet drives, autoloaders and tapes to read and write data in packets like the Internet, allowing far superior restore integrity, exceptional transfer speeds and scalable tape capacities. With award-winning VXA Packet Technology, patented ExaBotics(TM) and its innovative engineering approach, Exabyte delivers new VXA(TM) and LTO(TM) (Ultrium(TM)) products that consistently raise the bar for industry standards in engineering, quality and data reliability. The company's product suite is ideally suited for SMB and departmental servers, workstations, LANs, and SANs, providing dramatically higher capacity, speed and reliability at competitive prices. Exabyte has a worldwide network of OEMs, distributors and resellers that share the company's commitment to innovation and customer service, including IBM, HP, Fujitsu Siemens, Apple, Imation, Bull, Toshiba, Logitec, Kontron, Tech Data, Ingram Micro, CDW and Arrow Electronics. For additional information, call 1-800-EXABYTE or visit www.exabyte.com. For investor relations inquiries, contact Kelly Beavers at investor@exabyte.com.

Data capacities and transfer rates assume a compression ratio of two-to-one. Actual compression will vary depending on the nature of the data and the drive and media quality.

Exabyte, VXA and VXA-2 are registered trademarks, and M2, MammothTape, PacketLoader and ExaBotics are trademarks of Exabyte Corp. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.