Hi I’m a hardcore PC gamer. Unfortunately I was detected cheating in one game, Americas Army, by some cheat detection software by a company called PunkBuster. They have subsequently banned me from playing a vast number of online games by using and MD5 hash of my HDD Manufacturer Serial Number.

Now I know this is stored in HDD Firmware and the protocol for accessing it is different for every manufacturer. All I need to do is very slightly alter this Serial Number data for IBM / Hitachi HDD. I believe such a utility would also have a commercial value.

Can anyone recommend a utility / people to do that. Clearly that is preferable to selling my drives on eBay and buying some more

I'm not sure what you are sying is right, however I know that PC3K can change the serial number of the hard drive.

Why don't you just clone your drive to another one and use that one for gaming?

P.S. But the software not to be banned.

I could clone the drive to another but why bother if I could change the actual HDD serial number at will ...

The software is not not banned ... only playing online on PunkBuster servers if they recognise your hardware. Another method of avoiding the ban is to put the drives in a hardware RAID array.

PC3000 is I beleive overkill for what I need ...

Hello, you already tryed google ?
Look there for: "hard disk serial number"
I'm sure that you will find something free that can help you.

EDITED:

"HDD Firmware Serial Number Source Code: Manufacturer assigned Hard-Disk Serial Number or Firmware Serial Number is essential for many reasons. One, you can create a Machine constant which do not change with Operating System Changes or HDD Formatting. This machine constant can be used to base your product licensing. There are many methods to retrieve HDD Firmware Serial Number."

Yep thats why I'm here :-/ Most Google hits are for "Volume Serial Number" a completely different beast which is easily changed.

So if no one can recommend anything but a PC3000 sledgehammer to crack this simple walnut I think I will have to write the nutcracker myself and perhaps even make a few pennies in the process.

No you are here looking for a miracle.
Ok today is the Pro_Bono day:
HDD Firmware Serial Number Source Code 1.01.
http://www.gold-software.com/HDDFirmwar ... w11726.htm
This is what you will be able to get without the need to buy a hardware/software solution, if is not what you want or is not what you need my FREE advice is look for someone near you that can do the job for your, if you was near me I could do this for you for free. Is not a big deal to do what you want.
So put your adress here and maybe someone here that are reading this post can do the job for you for free.
End of my comments