UPDATE 3-Western Digital beats on fast recovery from Thai floods

* Sees Q3 rev $2.0-$2.15 bln vs est $2.04 bln

* Sees Q3 adj EPS $1.15-$1.45 vs est $0.91

* Q2 adj EPS $1.51 vs est $0.71

* Sees returning to full production by end of Q4

* Shares rise 5 pct in after-mkt trade

Jan 23 (Reuters) - Hard drive maker Western Digital Corp posted better-than-expected quarterly results and forecast a strong current quarter, signaling a faster-than-anticipated return to production capacity at key facilities damaged by the Thailand floods last year.

The company forecast third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.15 a share to $1.45 a share on revenue of $2.0 billion to $2.15 billion, while analysts' had expected a profit of 91 cents a share on revenue of $2.04 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company touched $22.75 in October, their lowest in more than two years, in the aftermath of the floods. They have recovered since and closed at $34.71 on Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. They were up 5 percent after the bell.

Western Digital's manufacturing facilities in Bang Pa-in Industrial Park in Ayutthaya province and Nava Nakorn Industrial Park in Pathum Thani province, were severely hit by floods last year, leading to muted expectations on Wall Street.

The company now expects to return to full production by the end of the fourth quarter and output to approach 60 percent of the pre-flood levels in the current quarter.

"We expect to be at 100 percent of capacity in the September quarter, so yes, exiting the June quarter we will have to be getting to that run rate," Chief Executive John Coyne said in a conference call with analysts.

Thailand, which accounts for over half of the world's hard disk drive (HDD) production, last year saw its worst flooding in decades that threw industrial production off track as factories and industrial estates were inundated.

Western Digital, which along with rival Seagate Technology commands over 90 percent of the total hard-drive market, expects to ship between 31 million to 33 million drives in the current quarter. That is more than the 28.5 million shipped in the second quarter.

The company posted October-December earnings of $145 million, or 61 cents a share, compared with $225 million, or 96 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, it earned $1.51 a share, trumping market expectations of 71 cent a share.

Revenue for the three-month period fell 19 percent to $2.0 billion, but topped Wall Street expectations of $1.84 billion.