HDD models and serials
Q: I have a failed hard drive, but I do not know the model and serial. How do I obtain this information?
A: If the the component is still visible to your operating system and hard drive controller, you can utilize a number of graphical and command line utilities from the operating system to identify the disks from their firmware details.
First, determine what type of hard drive controller you have. If your drives are attached to a motherboard SAS or SATA controller, or if you have a LSI HBA, you can interface with the drives directly. If you have a LSI RAID controller, you will need to use LSI's management utilities to bypass the virtual drive layer.
Motherboard or SAS HBA
Command line
- Linux
- hdparm -I /dev/sdX | grep 'Model\|Serial'
- smartctl -a /dev/sdX | grep 'Device Model\|Serial'
- SunOS variants
- iostat -En <WWN>
GUI
- Windows
- See documentation for Seagate's SeaTools or WD's Data Lifeguard utilities.
LSI MegaRAID
Command line
- MegaCli -PDinfo -PhysDrv[<enclosure id>:<slot id>] -aN | grep 'Inquiry Data'
- storcli /cx/ex/sx show all | grep 'Model\|Serial'
GUI
- In MegaRAID Storage Manger, click on the Physical tab, then click on the drive in the left pane. The right pane will then display drive info.
If the drive is not shown to your operating system, you can obtain the model and serial number from the top plate on the drive.
Example Seagate drive:
Example Western Digital drive:
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