Freecycle Me asks:
I have been given a couple of SCSI hard drives though this question may apply to any disk. I deal with wiping disks all the time but I have found that the serial numbers on these drives in no way relates to the ones printed on them. I write wipe the drives 3 times but the serial numbers stay the same. I can only guess that the serial is in some hardware on the outside of the disk like a ROM chip and that this has been somehow changed. Does anyone know how to change the serial number of a hard drive, in Windows or Linux? I would be very grateful.
Browser: Explorer 9
System: Windows/Linux
Tagged: delete files, hard drive, hardware tips, serial number
System: Windows/Linux
Tagged: delete files, hard drive, hardware tips, serial number
12 Answers - Write an Answer
ha14
February 18, 2013Hard Disk Serial Number Changer
http://www.xboxharddrive.com/freeware.html
the hardware serial number value won’t change even if you format your hard drive.
PB DownForce
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/download/?did=1092
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/changing-or-spoofing-hard-disk-hardware-serial-number-and-volume-id/
Bruce Epper
February 18, 2013The drive’s (hardware) serial number is generally embedded into the firmware of the drive and is not something that can easily (if at all) be modified. Depending on the format of the drive, the OS may also embed its own serial number during a full format process on the drive. This can be changed at will but the process will depend on the format of the drive in question.
Oron Joffe
February 18, 2013Bruce is spot on. The serial number is “hardwired” into the controller. You can’t overwrite it, and this is by design. As far as I know, the same is true for PATA & SATA as well. Serial numbers should not be confused with GUID, which is a unique number (but _not_ a serial no.) allocated to a drive during formatting.
Scott Pickett
February 19, 2013All hard drives have a hard coded serial number for the same reason that network adapters have a hard coded MAC address. I can only imagine the disaster that would occur if you had 2 drives in a RAID Array with the same serial number. Probably would open a hole in the space/time continuum. Plus I think the RAID would end destroyed.
Jim Chambers
February 19, 2013Why?????
Imesh Chandrasiri
February 19, 2013You cannot change the hardware serial number since it is stated in the device firmware!
Alan Wade
February 19, 2013Exactly what I was thinking Jim, Why would you want to change them?
Alan Wade
February 19, 2013Here is a link explaining exactly how to change the serial nimber of a volume and a hard drive:
http://www.raymond.cc/blog/changing-or-spoofing-hard-disk-hardware-serial-number-and-volume-id/
Tanveer Ahmed
February 19, 2013Try Hard Disk Serial Number Changer for windows click the following link to download for free
http://www.xboxharddrive.com/freeware.html
Adrian Rea
February 19, 2013Thank you all for your input, to follow up on the repllies. I am sure that the S/N is stored in the firmware. As to why, we sell on hard drives that are wiped and people generally expect serial numbers to match.. These particular ones came out of a server rack. Over 130 of them the serial number corresponded to the printed label, and 5 did not. We tried to see how the number had changed and the best suggestion that we came up with was that the firmware pcb may have been changed but this was unlikely. I think these guys may be on to something
http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=26784 but not sure if it developed further.
Thanks again to all
Yacub "The Big Headed Scientist"
May 16, 2013please , please, please stop speaking on matters which you do not know about. If you do not know if the hardware serial number can be change just say you do not know do not make yourself look unintelligent on the matter by misstating facts. When you misstate facts you make yourself look like an idiot to the people who are familiar with the facts. Let me help you identify an example of device hardware manipulation: cable boxes dummies. And if you do not believe me then do a query in the justice system and read the thousands of police reports collect on criminals caught with modified cable boxes for quick cash. Also when you post comments instead of just letting your mouth run how about providing some references. You can change the GUID the Harddrive serial number and any other number on any machine. If you can forge currency anything else under the sun is game. “Think before you act”
Yacub "The Big Headed Scientist"
May 16, 2013Also you do not need to change details on the client side of the computer since the client is in control of the client machine the client can spoof all information being sent to a server or a browser. Its pretty simple when you have the facts available.