Hard drive serial numbers.

[HardDiskBug]

He is in a pharmacy company..

[guru]

No... I would just like to goto the forum with the same type of work as you and dump all the info from the web (specific to your profession) into one place.. Then you will be unemployed

[scratchy]

Spildit what work do you do? IT , Service or something else?

Why do you ask ? Hard drive serial numbers can only be changed by people with a specific profession ?
I can't see a table anywhere with the professions of people allowed to mess with the firmware.

For some drives, you need to know exactly what you are doing otherwise you can brick your drives.

[Junior0409]

I still dont see how changing a serial number will put data recovery people out of business. Then again me learning how to do all this stuff has been a lot of fun. And since I already bought the equipment I might as see what I can accomplish with what I have.

[guru]

LOL it's the commands being published openly which is a problem... BECAUSE these commands are proprietary to each vendor...


Can't think of many places where confidential info is dumped so readily.......Maybe the FT ;o)

[dick]

If openly releasing information on this forum is considered to be a problem because the search engines can find the threads within a few hours why dosn't admin set up the forum so search engines can't get past a portal page.
I'm no webmaster but surely it would only be a few mouse clicks to do it and the search engines would be locked out forever. End of problem.

[Junior0409]

I still dont see how changing a serial number will put data recovery people out of business.

The same type of commands and ways to access SA to get your serial change are the same type of commands and keys to unlock the SA access that are used to perform data recovery at the firmware level (when i drive have firmware problems)

Yeah, but its still not something that most people can pick up on, is it? I mean people would really have to put in a crap load of hours to figure out how to do this stuff.

[Junior0409]

Yeah, but its still not something that most people can pick up on, is it? I mean people would really have to put in a crap load of hours to figure out how to do this stuff.

As a matter of fact ... it's more easy than people wants you to know ....
When you have the right commands.

For instance, with the same RS-232 device that you use to change serial numbers on seagate you can send 2 or 3 commans to those 7200.11 drives with the firmware bug and fix them for good, avoyding $1500 USD expense or more in data recovery pros.
With the WD techno key and vendor command to regen translator (that i've already post on other thread) you can fix a very frequent problem with WD drives and once more don't have to pay $1500 USM or more. You just need a free MHDD and a script (that i've already posted) and you don't have the need of a tool that costs you 10k.

Yeah I saw that. I have a feeling that your pissing off a lot of people here, Spildit. Your name is verry fitting.

[drc]

As another example.
The way for you to change a WD model name is to get the module with the ID and change it and write it back. The same module have the password. So the way for you to unlock a WD and to change the serial or model is the same !!!!

And the more it gets posted, the more they will make sure to make it a hell of a lot harder in the next drives released.

[Junior0409]

My fiance seems to think along the lines of most of you guys. "You just spent all that money and time doing this stuff you are not going to share anything you learn from it". Yeah, only problem is im so terrified of using the information I learned in fear of bricking brand new drives let alone share what I know or rather what I learned from Spildit.

[BGman]

What does " Spildit " mean ?

[guru]

Yeah, but its still not something that most people can pick up on, is it? I mean people would really have to put in a crap load of hours to figure out how to do this stuff.

As a matter of fact ... it's more easy than people wants you to know ....
When you have the right commands.

For instance, with the same RS-232 device that you use to change serial numbers on seagate you can send 2 or 3 commans to those 7200.11 drives with the firmware bug and fix them for good, avoyding $1500 USD expense or more in data recovery pros.
With the WD techno key and vendor command to regen translator (that i've already post on other thread) you can fix a very frequent problem with WD drives and once more don't have to pay $1500 USM or more. You just need a free MHDD and a script (that i've already posted) and you don't have the need of a tool that costs you 10k.

Yeah I saw that. I have a feeling that your pissing off a lot of people here, Spildit. Your name is verry fitting.


Spilled it .... Or Spoiled It ..... LOL

He does spill all the info

[omega47]

Ok, if you don't mind, I'd like to steal this thread back and return it to the original topic.

As far as having a legal use to access and/or re-write hard drive model numbers and serial numbers, there are many legitimate reasons to do so.

I operate a hard drive repair and refurbishing service and I often get requests from computer houses around the world to reprogram drives with their own brand name, model number and serial number so they can market them as their own product, and use them in their house brand computers. We have successfully changed this information for years on many types of IDE drives.

Unfortunately, the software we use will not change this information on the current crop of SATA drives, specifically the Western Digital SATA drives. If anyone has a program and/or product that can re-write the model number and serial number on Western Digital SATA hard drives, I would like to hear from you.

Thanks
Omega47

[guru]

computer houses around the world #

Never heard of that being requested in the last 14 years

[omega47]

Heard of what being requested? When ever you see "white label" drives being advertised by drive brokers, someone probably changed the model number and serial number in the drive. It can be done with the right software.

We've been reprogramming serial numbers on IDE drives for the last 6 years or so. The drives still show up in Windows and to the computer as the actual make and model, but if anyone peeks at the make and model displayed by the drive BIOS, they will see the store owner's model number and serial number. The only thing I've been able to think is that there are 2 layers of drive data in the ROM, one that is displayed and one that the computer sees. What we can change is the information that is displayed by the drive. However it works, we still get requests for it all the time.

Our problem now is that we are getting requests for SATA drives to be reprogrammed and that we have not yet found a way to do.

[guru]

White labels mostly come from MDT and a few crappy China suppliers

[fzabkar]

FYI, here is a fake 2TB WD2003FYYS-02W0B0 RE4 drive:
http://we.pcinlife.com/thread-1496042-1-1.html

It is really a 5900 RPM Caviar Green 2TB.

[Doomer]

why do you think it's fake?

I hope you didn't base you opinion on comments and transfer rate
WD did it before, for example
WD20EADS-00S2B0 (Green) and WD2002FYPS-01U1B0 (Black RE4)
Have the same PCB and number of platters AND even the same family code (meaning you can make one drive from the other and vice versa by re-writing FW)
It is not fake it is marketing

[fzabkar]

I try not to base my opinion on comments, especially not at HDD Guru.

In fact the huge disparity in data transfer rates was an obvious cause for concern, but the clincher was the fact that the fake was spinning at 5900 RPM whereas the RE4 was spinning at 7200 RPM. This is evident in HD Tune's access time graphs.

http://52web.net/pic/hdtune-50823-1.jpg (fake)
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune3.5-50823.jpg (fake)
http://52web.net/pic/hdtune-2003fyys-true-2.jpg (genuine)

I believe the "fakes" are probably RE4-GP green drives. According to WD's spec sheets, the WD2003FYYS RE4 drive spins at 7200 RPM and has a max sustained transfer rate of 138 MB/s, whereas the WD2002FYPS spins at 5900 RPM ("IntelliPower") and has a transfer rate of 110 MB/s.

WD RE4 Series Disti Spec Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/S ... 701338.pdf

WD RE4-GP Series Disti Spec Sheet:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/S ... 701312.pdf

I am aware that WD sometimes uses two different platter densities in the same model. Here are two related threads at WD's forums where a user measured vastly different transfer rates for two WD6402AAEX drives:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD6 ... /m-p/40119
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/Che ... /m-p/38541

[BlackST]

@omega, everything is possible : I do refurb too and if the drive had borrowed FW the sn is the donor one, so after the 'process' if needed the sn can be changed. What's the problem? Some have sn in rom other on the platters other both and need to be specified before, in both case it is possible to change.