I have 3 Drives that are the same except for the Serial Numbers.

I have a Old program that relies on the Serial Number to work, The Company is NO longer in buisness, and I am unable to get a new Unlock key for the new drives.
I have the Unlock Key for the drive it was installed on.
The Drives are MAXTOR 2B020H1 20 Gb.
I am willing to pay someone to do this as I assume it is out of my ability.

I also realize that some of you will bash me for asking, but let me explain before you do.
The drive is dying so I am even afraid to keep it running long. And as I said the company is no longer in buisness and I have been unable to find anyone that can make a new key for me.
I have a legit Key for the software.
What I would like is 2 drives with the same serial number as the one I have. One to replace the drive I have, and one as a backup, in case it ever fails again.
I will supply the drives, and the serial Number I need on them, pay Shipping and whatever it will cost to keep me running.

What is the complete model and firmware (WAK/WABxxxx) ? PM me !

One freeware option may be to use HDDHackr to modify a recent model WD drive to identify itself with the same model number, firmware version, and serial number as your Maxtor drive. That's how people circumvent Microsoft's Xbox HDD upgrade limitation. I can help you if you would like to try this approach.

Otherwise, if you insist on modifying your Maxtor drive's firmware modules, then I believe it could be done with MRT (Maxtor HDD Repair Tool, ~US$100):
http://www.chinahdd.cn/List.asp?C-1-11.html

However, it may not be a straightforward process. I don't see anything on the China HDD Union web site that would suggest that changing the serial number is a clickable procedure.

Anyway, AISI your serial number would be stored in little endian format. For example, a serial number of "B1EE47FE" would be stored as "1BEE74EF". You would first use MRT to read all the modules, and then use a hex editor to search them for your serial number string. After editing the serial numbers, you would then recalculate the checksum of each module. The checksum should be 0xFFFF. It is computed by summing the 16-bit words in little endian format. The two "integrity" bytes are written to the end of the block.

Here is a resource dump from a Maxtor 2B020H1 model with WAH21PB0 firmware:
http://www.datadonor.net/PC3000/Maxtor/ ... B020H1.rar

You can see that the serial number appears in 00080001.rpm and 09581F40.rpm. I believe the file numbers reflect the starting location of the module in LBA format, plus its size in sectors. For example, "09581F40" begins at LBA 0x0958 and has a size of 0x1F40 sectors. Of course these modules are located in a reserved area, not in the user area.

I have attached a checksum calculator written by Pete Disdale.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

And in that is my problem. How to access the "reserved area", or if I even can. I am not to familiar with getting into these drives.

Where are you located?

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Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

You don't need to be familiar. Moreover, you are unnecessarily limiting your options.

With HDDHackr you could use a recent model WD drive with a much larger capacity, and you could do so at no cost, as many times as you like. All you would need to do would be to provide a HDDSS.BIN file that incorporates your Maxtor identity data. HDDHackr then uses these data to transparently modify the relevant modules in the reserved area of the WD drive. You don't need to do anything more than provide the BIN file. That's something I could do for you. Moreover, HDDHackr generates an UNDO.BIN file so that you can restore the drive to its original state should you need to do so.

If you opt for professional services, then once again you need not limit yourself to an identical replacement drive. Just about any Seagate or WD drive could be modified to suit.

If you are concerned about the age of your hardware, then there are also several ways to circumvent any limitations. For example, if your motherboard does not have a SATA port, then you could purchase a PCI SATA controller card, or you could purchase an IDE-to-SATA adapter PCB ($5 - $10). If your BIOS has a 128GiB/137GB HDD capacity limitation, then you could use a freeware tool such as HDAT2 or MHDD, or even HDDHackr itself, to truncate the new drive.

As for you concerns regarding accessing the reserved area, that's what the professional tools are designed to do. Uploading and downloading firmware modules to and from the reserved area are just clickable menu options.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

I have the HDDHackr program. I have had used that in the past on a Xbox drive. (I lost System 1 compatability with this mod so I just went back to my orig HHD)

I have looked at the bin file with a hex editor and found the serial number location. It is 12 char. long. the one I have to use is 8.

So for a test, I edited the bin, it was this

20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 4E 5A 32 58 54 37 32 32
45 4A 39 32 30 30 39 33 30 30 31 33 46 55 4A 49
54 53 55 20 4D 48 57 32 31 32 30 42 48 20 20 20
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

I made it look like this:

20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 42 31 41 37
33 45 54 45 30 30 39 33 30 30 31 33 46 55 4A 49
54 53 55 20 4D 48 57 32 31 32 30 42 48 20 20 20
20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

As you can see, I used 20 20 20 20 as padding for the shorter Serial, (Don't know if that is right)but its whats around it so...., But it did not work.
The Serial Does show as what I need but program will not accept key.
So should I have padded it at the end maybe?? or FF it???

The following article is my attempt to understand how HddHackr works:

HddHackr — how it modifies a Western Digital drive for use in an Xbox 360:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/Hd ... lysis.html

Are you certain that your program is only checking the serial number and not the model number and firmware version as well?

Are you able to capture your drive's 512-byte Identify Device data block to a file? That will tell us the exact format of the abovementioned parameters. Otherwise if you can wait a little while, I'll try to extract it from the PC3K firmware dump that I alluded to previously.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Here are the Identify Device data that I extracted from 09581F40.rpm in the resource archive:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/2B020H1.TXT

I have tabulated the data to correspond to the format in the section 7.16 of the following standard:

Working Draft AT Attachment 8 - ATA/ATAPI Command Set (ATA8-ACS):
http://www.t13.org/documents/UploadedDo ... A8-ACS.pdf

Words 10-19: Serial number

"The contents of this field is an ATA string of twenty bytes ... The device shall pad the string with spaces (i.e., 20h)..."

Words 23-26: Firmware revision

"The contents of this field is an ATA string of eight bytes ... The device shall pad the string with spaces (20h)..."

Words 27-46: Model number

"The contents of this field is an ATA string of forty bytes ... The device shall pad the string with spaces (20h)..."

Words 60-61: Total number of user addressable logical sectors for 28-bit commands

0x262aa90 sectors x 512 bytes/sector = 20 490 559 488 bytes

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Here are the changes I would make to HDDSS.BIN in order to modify a WD3200BEVT drive that has a capacity of 625142448 (= 0x2542EAB0) LBAs:



You would need to change the firmware version (WAH21PB0) to correspond to your Maxtor.

BTW, Fujitsu's serial numbers appear to be right justified whereas Maxtor's appear to be left justified.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

well. I have been tinkering with this Hddhackr and it has left me with undesireable results. It Does change the SSN but depending on where I start the SSN at the key changes and it will not install. So time for trial and lots of error.

You need to understand that you are using two different HDD for Maxtor one is Poker and one is DSP this is your problem and that is why we have told you more than once if you really need this and do not understand the structure of your HDD it would be better to have someone who does change it for you. You can brick one drive if you keep going on like this and following the suggestions of a person who does not have the tools and understand the makeup of the HDD and what they are doing. Sorry it is your drive but to change a SN is not too expensive on this one. I see that Thatdellguy asked you where you are located. He can easily do this one for you for a very small fee. Might want to consider this one before you brick your drive. Not sure it is your drive and your data and you can go on like this one. I did see you asked for someone to do this for you now you are doing it on your own. BlackST here is one of the top experts on Maxtor drives and I think he has suggested to you some ideas on this one. I would try and listen to him over anyone else for this matter. Everyone here knows BlackST and what he can do with Maxtor drives but not only this one he is the expert in other drives as well and when there is some issues he knows where to look.

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Iorana Haraharaini

I am sorry, but Sir you are mistaken. I said "all" of the Maxtor drives I have are DSP. and there exactly the same drive.
I am sorry if there was some confusion about that.

This last adventure was trying to use hddhackr on a WD drive to mimick the SN of the maxtor. While it did work, Depending on how I place the SN in HEX (IE if I make it start at the beginning or move it to the end ect... the key generated changes), So I need a way to look at MY drive and see just exactly how it it placed, and padded. even 1 small change from what it expects and it will not work.
Which is why, I offered to pay someone to make the changes for me. And that offer still stands.
I have not attempted to do anyting with (MY) maxtor drives. I have only read the SN off the case of it. The Only drive I have tinkered with is a WD one I had laying around.
I had PM BlaskST and I do not believe he has Responded yet.
I am in the USA, I forgot to mention that.

But on a side note. The WD drive I was playing with, I must have bricked. after making several changes, reverting, making changes, ect... I used the undo.bin to go to factory and after I did that it is no longer recognised. And now I can not reflash that drive. Gives me some DRQ error msg. No biggie.

OK NP if you want help out of the US here is a list of people you might want to seek some help from on your Maxtor drives.

Thatdellguy is located in California
Jono is located in Georgia
Quasimodo is located in Florida

That is going from West Coast to East Coast but there are plenty of other inbetween but you have the three here on the forum that would do this one for you for a reasonable price.

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Iorana Haraharaini

I was just waiting to see if the experiments were over. Still here

The Maxtor architecture is no doubt irrelevant. Your program would interrogate the drive using the ATA Identify Device command, in which case any physical differences would be of no consequence. If HDDHackr can make a WD drive identify itself as a Fujitsu, then it can do exactly the same thing for any other brand or model.


That's why I asked for the drive's Identify Device data. That would tell you exactly how the serial number field is laid out.

Did you change the model number and firmware version as well? Are you certain that the serial number is the only thing that your software is looking to match?


That's bizarre. Could you upload your UNDO.BIN file?

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

While I am almost 100% sure it only looks at the serial Number, I have no way to be completely sure. According to what I have been able to find. When the install program installs the base program it hashes the Serial Number of the Hard drive with a internal number in the install CD to get a Machine ID number. You would then take the Machine ID along with the "extra program installer" (that you buy seperatly) to make a "unlock code for that CD"
So for instance, I install the base program. When it is finished there is a screen to add more features, this screen shows a ID like this, Y-BFRE-4G5Y6-H98Y.
It also has a call-in number that you would call to "activate" the next part. OK I install a feature CD it has a Serial number also. it would be say, 1-2000-3245-9001
When you call you give both the 2 numbers, and they would generate a "unlock key" like this P-RTY7-VD45-7HTY9, You enter this code the program reads it as a valid Key and allows the install.

As a test, I had a long time ago, reinstalled from scratch on the same Hard drive this program, and the key did not change. So that would lead me to think as long as everything is the same it will generate the same key everytime.
Hence the reason to make a exact copy of the drive.

To bad they are no longer in buisness, would have been nice to just call and get a key.....
My undo.bin is attached.
Unfortunatly, I had to use one of the ones from the Zip file from that page you sent. Somehow my orig one got overwritten. Not sure how that happened. Probably tired and clicked something I shouldnt have.

I believe that the procedure involving HDDHackr was essentially sound. However, you made the mistake of applying a foreign UNDO.BIN. In retrospect you should have copied the first UNDO.BIN to a safe place, or perhaps you could have renamed it to something like UNDO_WD_model_and_serial_num.bin.

The UNDO.BIN file consists of two firmware modules, module 0D which resides in flash memory on the PCB, and module 02 which lives in the reserved System Area (SA) on the platters. You can identify these components by their "ROYL" headers. MOD OD has a version of "00070038" whereas MOD 02 is "00080000". I suspect that these versions are inconsistent with the versions of the original MODs.

In any case I believe that your experimentation with HDDHackr suggests that your software is looking for more than just a HDD serial number, otherwise a left justified serial number padded with spaces would have been successful.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

FYI, a WD user has recently managed to use HDDHackr to restore the parameters of his WD drive by editing an HDDSS.BIN file.

See http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/Ins ... 4055#M9066

In his case he had lost his original UNDO.BIN file. Unfortunately the same technique cannot be used to recover from an incorrectly applied UNDO.BIN.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.