Thailand flooding

Economic losses: $45 billion

Industry impact: About 45 percent of the world's hard-disk-drive manufacturing capacity is in Thailand.

Shortages. Hard disk drives for laptops, tablets and desktop computers. Prices have soared.

Recovery estimates: "We expect the situation will improve, but it won't feel as if things are back to normal until 2013," John Rydning, an IDC analyst who follows the hard-disk-drive market, told Computer World.

Minnesota companies affected by Thailand floods:

Hutchinson Technology. It hopes to have its Thailand plant operating again by the end of June. Costs: up to $35 million. Insurance will pay for about $25 million of the repairs, the company said.

Donaldson Co. Its disk-drive filter business accounts for about 5 percent of sales. Flooding in Thailand has "really slowed worldwide production of disk drives. So we figure that will take our revenue number down about $15 million," CFO James Shaw told analysts.

Seagate Technology. CEO Stephen Luczo told analysts in November: "It's not just simple things like 'once the water recedes everything will be OK.' You need to think about what it really is: It's water that's contaminated with all sorts of things ... factories in nine, 10, 12 feet of water in 95-degree weather." Industry recovery time? "A year to two years."