Here are the results of my first investigations, with the example of a 2,5'' 2TB USB drive.
Model- Code:
MQ01ABB200
1234567890
1 : seem always "M" for 2.5'' drives (probably "M" is for "Mobile")
2: seem the generation / serie of drives (K for older drives ; Q for newer ones)
3 & 4: sub-family? ("01" seem very common)
5: A= SATA interface ; U = USB interface
6: ? seem always "B"
7: ? varies (...,B, C, D, ...)
8-10: three last positions = capacity in 10GB (in this example a 2 TB drive)
Drive revAA00/AY000U
Serial number- Code:
Y48 JP9F1T XR6 HDKFB02AZA01 T
MYJ ABCDE XYZ 123456789012 #
First block of 3 digits:M: Month of production (1,2, ... October is X, November Y, December Z)
Y: Last digit of the year of production (eg. 0 for 2010, 4 for 2014, 5 for 2015)
J: Day of production (1,2,...9,A,B,...) (eg. G is for 16)
Second block of 5 digitsA: ?
B: ?
C: ?
D: ?
E: ?
Third block of 3 digitsX: ?
Y: ?
Z: ?
Fourth block of 12 digits (with example HDKFB02AZA01) This is the model code.
1 (H): ? (seem often H)
2 (D): ? (seem often D)
3 (K): ? seem often K
4 (F): ? varies
5 (B): ?
6 (0): ?
7 (2): ?
8 (A): ? (seem often A)
9 (Z): seem always Z for SATA drives and always Y for USB drives
10 (A): (seem often A)
11 (0): for USB
3? (seem 0 for SATA drives and 0 or 3 for USB drives)
12 (1): ? (seem always 1)
Fifth block (1 digit)#: ? seem either T or S
Notes:For those with keen eyes, carefully comparing the Toshiba drives listed on Donnordrives.com (
http://www.donordrives.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Toshiba) may help to find out the how the miscellaneous drive configurations are coded, as their descriptions of each drive are very detailed and it is easy to see several drives of the same model listed on the same page, making easier such serial number "reverse engineering".
I'm not affiliated with donnordrives nor any drive/pcb seller.
Please share if you find more.