HDD Firmware Labels

[Zarrex]

Hi All,
I've had this idea to customise the HDD firmware label for some time but cannot find any information as to how. Now I believe it is possible, and if it isn't then maybe it's a feature which the manufacturers would like to add.

The Problem:
In a multiple boot system, without a boot manager installed, we would use F8 to bring up the BBS Popup, but this list is just the storage firmware label and not very user friendly. For those of us that understand our systems its not really a problem, but the rest of the planet don't have a clue.
Before SSD this wasn't really a problem but more and more I see dual storage device solutions in systems. A C-System drive and a D-Data drive; the C is a fast storage device, either 10K HDD or SSD and then a 1Tb+ Storage HDD.
My personal favourite is to load an OS on both drives, the primary C: Windows (for example) and then a 20Gb partition on the D: for a second OS like Linux. This provides some level resilience against failure and the option for a more secure surfing option.
In light of this wouldn't it be great if the Firmware labels for the drives could be customised so that rather than 'Toshiba MK5061 GSYN' it could be 'Windows 7' or 'Linux' in the BBS Popup menu.

Grub is not an option because it only installs on one drive, the same for any boot.ini ideas similar to the way that Wubi works.

Any ideas or solutions would be greatly recieved.

[fzabkar]

In order to change the model number reported by the drive, you need to edit the firmware. This requires access to proprietary vendor specific commands.

AFAICS, you should be able to do this for WD "ROYL" drives using HddHackr:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/Hd ... lysis.html

Enter the required text string in HDDSS.BIN. Just make sure you backup the contents of LBAs 16-22 beforehand and restore them afterwards, if necessary.

[Zarrex]

thanks Fzabkar, hddhackr looks like a very useful tool but unfortunately its too specific to WD HDDs and not very flexible to other brands.
Is there another tool that can do the same?
Didn't Norton untilities have a sector editor in it years ago ?

[fzabkar]

The Norton Utilities work on the user area. You need commercial tools that work on the firmware, either in the "ROM" on the PCB or in the reserved System Area (SA) on the platters.