It is over a year ago when Maxtor announced the acquisition, but it did not finalize until last summer. Im really amazed some people still havent heard about this, this happened a month ago or two?? Anyway, the Maxtor Fireballs are just straight out Quantums, they didn't even both to put their Maxtor logo on them. But the two hard drive lines have started to integrate so future hard drives will be codeveloped by Maxtor and the former Quantum engineers. The Fireball Plus AS, the model Maxtor put in their boxes, is virtually identical in performance to the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 60 of the same generation. They're both very quiet hard drives, many owners can confirm this; and it is indeed true that some Quantum drives possess Fluid Dynamic Bearings. Whether if there's really any performance and reliability differences is debatable, but seriously, if Maxtor trusts Quantum's reliability, then Maxtor fans shouldnt worry about it. I mean, who knows Quantum better than themselves does now that they own Quantum?