Terry Johnson (entrepreneur)

Terry Johnson
Born	March 14, 1935 Ogden, Utah
Died	July 24, 2010(2010-07-24) (aged 75) NW Territories, Canada
Alma mater	University of Utah, University of California, Berkeley
Occupation(s)	Engineer, Entrepreneur, Founder of MiniScribe, Co-founder of CoData/Conner), Co-founder of PrairieTek

Terry Johnson (March 14, 1935 – July 24, 2010) was an engineer and entrepreneur notable for his work on hard disk drives (HDD). Johnson's early career included engineering and management roles in magnetic recording at IBM (1964–70) and Memorex (1971–73). He then joined in the development of STC 8000 Super Disk,^[1] a high-end rotary actuator HDD funded by StorageTek.

In 1980, he left StorageTek to found a startup, Miniscribe, a manufacturer of 5.25 inch HDDs. In 1985, he started another new company, CoData, that subsequently merged with Conner Peripherals in 1986. CoData's 3.5-inch drive became Conner's first product. In 1985, Johnson co-founded PrairieTek, the first maker of 2.5 inch drives. Johnson died in the Northwest Territories, Canada, when his private aircraft crashed during his return from a canoe trip.