hard disk id changer

[ussleo]

is it possible to change hard disk serial number?

[bcolflesh]

I know it was possible with FAT-16 formatted drives, but I don't see any utils for FAT-32 or NTFS - using the old utils will destroy the data mapping.

If you just want to change the Volume ID, try:

[codeproject.com...]

[bcolflesh]

Further investigation seems to indicate that you can use low-level ATA commands to change the manufacturers physical drive serial number - but you need to know the exact commands for your make and model, and of course a device interface to deliver them.

If the manufacturer/search engine doesn't supply the info - you're stuck.

[ussleo]

yesterday i found this address:
[sysinternals.com...]
there you can use volumeid.exe, it seems to do the work
tryi it and let me know

[bcolflesh]

it seems to do the work

That changes the VolumeID set by the Format command - not the hard drive physical serial.

[ussleo]

tell me more about this hard drive physical serial.
it is a micro-chip or something?
so, there is no way to change that number?

[bcolflesh]

From ATA spec 7.0 -

"6.16.17 Words (19:10): Serial number
This field contains the serial number of the device. The contents of this field is an ASCII character string of
twenty bytes. The device shall pad the character string with spaces (20h), if necessary, to ensure that the
string is the proper length. The combination of Serial number (words (19:10)) and Model number (words (46:27))
shall be unique for a given manufacturer."

[t13.org...] has all the info you need.

[SEOMike]

I'm curious... why would anyone WANT to go to all the trouble of changing a HDD serial number?

Tivo hacking? Software transferring?

[bcolflesh]

Tivo hacking? Software transferring?

Probably software transferring - physical serial number change is not necessary to "customize" Tivo.

[ussleo]

I'm curious too.
"don't waste your time(life) on the border line"

[SEOMike]

Probably software transferring - physical serial number change is not necessary to "customize" Tivo.

Ok. I haven’t read about Tivo and putting in bigger HDDs much, but thought that might be an obstacle.

At first I thought it was a ridiculous amount of work just to transfer software... but with prices the way they are.. sound like a good idea to me!

[bcolflesh]

a ridiculous amount of work

If you have any friends who work for commercial replication/retrieval places, they have all the ATA command set "changer" tools/software - you'll almost never come across it in the "wild".