Hard drive serial numbers.

[Junior0409]

I bought a brand new momentus 160gb. I changed the serial number right away and it worked perfectly. I was told the first three digits had to stay the same and that was fine in this case. My first try was with a used one and that didnt work. I had a feeling it wouldnt. My question is can you completely change a hard drive serial number and still have it work properly. Are there hard drives out there that you can change the whole serial number and work properly. I dont really care about data recovery. Im working with completely new drives.

[guru]

I thought you just wanted your own hdd done for that media player.. Or was that a load of crap and you just want to upgrade media players?

[scratchy]

Why would anyone want to change serial numbers unless they are trying to break copy protection?

[Junior0409]

The idea was to just to replace my own hard drive if I could. Didnt get any help on doing that. I got enough interest from other people so I went ahead and bought the equipment to do it on my own. Im not trying to get rich here. I just want to break even.

[BlackST]

However if you bought the equipment - not a 5$ adapter, I hope - you should have the info included.

[Junior0409]

I didnt know there was a 5 adapter I could have bought. There was the schematics on how to build one. Judging from my past experiences building that kind of stuff on my own usually ended up costing me more than having bought the equipment. There are just some things you dont skimp on. Thank you very much for your help. I will try that tomorrow.

[drc]

You know, information sharing is great, but the more stuff like this is freely floating around on the internets, the more the manufacturers are going to change things to be more difficult to mess with.

[drc]

It doesn't really apply in your case, but this seems like a good time to make the point that when people publicly post recovery-related information in an attempt to lower recovery service prices, they are really causing recovery to be more difficult in the future which will only raise recovery service prices.

[Junior0409]

From what I have seen, the more manufacturers make things difficult to mess with the more business they end up loosing. If someone comes to you with a drive that has important financial info that will cost hundreds or thousand of dollars to recover and asks you what brand of hard drive would you recommend for future reference? What would recommend? Something that will be easier or harder for you to recover? Some companies embrace people "messing" around with their equipment. Apple instead of blocking firmware alterations to their itouch released a sdk instead. Now there are thousands of programs people can download for their product and it has become a great selling point. I think I more computer literate than some of the new people who post on this forum and the thought of me going into data recovery never crossed my mind. I know some data recovery equipment manufacturers kind of falsely advertise that anyone can go into this business easily. And thats just not true. I honestly dont think that you guys have anything to fear just yet. Not unless a company comes with a 1 click hard drive recovery for less than $50. All I wanted to do was replace the hard drive on a device the manufacturer doesnt even support anymore. Who exactly does that hurt except the people who forked hundreds of dollars on something that only works for a year? And on that note, Spildit thank you for your advice. It really helped.

[guru]

as an example HGST removed selfscan code and required a specific ROM.

I know for certain that things will be harder for reversing and therefore tools will become more expensive..

So if you have info you really want to share and IT'S NOT YOUR OWN PM them.......

You may feel like a WHITE KNIGHT but your screwing us

[Junior0409]

What exactly is the point of this forum if it isnt to share information or ask for help? I dont think most people or data recovery companies will have a problem passing on the increased cost of recovery to their customers.

[BlackST]

The point of this forum is to keep HDDGURUs in contact.

[drc]

What exactly is the point of this forum if it isnt to share information or ask for help?

I'm not saying no information should be shared, but maybe everything does not need to be posted in an easily google-searchable form.

I dont think most people or data recovery companies will have a problem passing on the increased cost of recovery to their customers.

This is exactly what will happen. So in the long run, the white knight types are only hurting themselves and the other end-users.

Last edited by drc on April 27th, 2009, 13:53, edited 2 times in total.

[BlackST]

And on that note, Spildit thank you for your advice. It really helped.

So if manufactors change things to a degree that it's no longer possible to mess with those drives firmwares, when a problem happen people on DR buisness will start to tell to the clients something like "Sorry, we can't do nothing regarding that particullar drive, don't buy that brand anymore".

That's when real DR people, not the ones who rely only on the commercial tools , come out and with some effort find a solution. That's what independent research is intended for.

P.S. why cry because valuable info is not at reach? that's life.

[Zorb]

...

Apple instead of blocking firmware alterations to their itouch released a sdk instead. Now there are thousands of programs people can download for their product and it has become a great selling point.

...

Apple takes a dim view of even attempting to tinker with their firmwares on the iPhone and iPod Touch. They released a development kit for software only, not firmware. Also, they very strictly spell out what you are allowed to do and what you are not as far as application function. They also restrict your distribution methods.

Now, in the past, they used to give a lot of information about their ROMs, just short of source code, say in the Apple II days. Of course, that's when they used to actually encourage you to take apart your computer.

[dmarques]

One thing is true. All this sharing won't help data recovery in the future, even if someone has it's own research and development.
And besides that, I agree that this was suppose to be a hddguru forum, and that's long gone in the past.

[BlackST]

Then don't help newbies and discuss behind closed doors not on open forum. It's so simple... there is a PM feature.

[Junior0409]

All I really wanted to know is if it was possible to use a serial number from a seagate on a western digital and still have it work properly. I didnt ask how to do it, just wanted to know if it was possible.

[scratchy]

So Can I change the serial number on my Quantum AS ???

[guru]

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