JTS initially focused on a new 3" form-factor drive for laptops. The 3" form factor allowed a larger drive capacity for laptops with the existing technology. Compaq Computers was actively engaged in qualifying these drives and built several laptops with this form factor drive. Lack of a second source was a major obstacle for this new form factor to gain a foothold; JTS licensed the form factor to Western Digital to attempt to remedy this problem. Eventually, as 2.5" drives became cheaper to build, interest in the 3" form factor waned, and JTS and WD stopped the project in 1998. JTS by then had become a source of cheap, medium-performance 3.5" drives with 5400 RPM spindles. The drives, produced in a factory in India, were known for poor reliability. Failure rates were very high and quality control was inconsistent: good drives were very good, still running after 5 years, whereas bad drives almost always failed within a few weeks. Because of their low-tier reputation, JTS drives were rare in brand-name PCs and most frequently turned up in home-built and whitebox PCs. Product lines included Palladium and Champion internal IDE hard drives. The basic design of their drives was done by Kalok for TEAC in the early 1990s. TEAC used the design as part of a removable HDD system, which was also sold under the Kalok name. After Kalok failed in 1994, JTS hired its founder as their chief technical officer, and licensed the patents involved from TEAC and Pont Peripherals.
Merger with Atari Corporation and demise
On July 30, 1996, in a reverse takeover, JTS merged with former video game console and home computer producer, Atari Corporation. It was primarily a marriage of convenience; JTS had products but little cashflow, while Atari had money, primarily from a series of successful lawsuits earlier in the decade followed by good investments. However, with the failure of its Jaguargame console, losses mounting, and no other products to sell, Atari expected to run out of money within two years. Within a few weeks of the merger becoming official, all the former Atari employees were either dismissed or relocated to JTS's headquarters. Atari's inventory of Jaguar products proved difficult to get rid of, even at liquidation prices, and the bulk of them remained in stock months after the merger. The Jaguar inventory would finally be moved out to a private liquidator on December 23, 1996. Even with the cash infusion from Atari, JTS quickly ran out of money. On February 23, 1998, JTS sold all the Atari properties to Hasbro Interactive for $5 million in cash. Later that year, on December 11, JTS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but its filing was ultimately converted into involuntary Chapter 7 liquidation by the bankruptcy courts on January 28, 1999.
