Is there a manufacturer unique identifier on a hard drive and how do I read that identifier?

Question

I understand the concept of a file system UUID. Is there a manufacturer unique identifier on a hard drive, apart from the file system UUID, and how do I read that identifier?

Answer 1

If you open the Disk Utility application (default in Ubuntu) you get all the information regarding the disks in your computer.

Edit: command line output:

xxx@xxx$ sudo hdparm -i /dev/sda | grep Model
 Model=SAMSUNG HD753LJ, FwRev=1AA01113, SerialNo=S13UJDWQ907130

Answer 2

If you look in the folder /sys/block/sd?/device where the ? is a, b, etc you should find the files vendor and model which should enable you to identify the manufacturer.

For example, on one of my systems:

# cat /sys/block/sda/device/vendor
ATA
# cat /sys/block/sda/device/model
ST9500325AS
# cat /sys/block/sdd/device/vendor
Samsung
# cat /sys/block/sdd/device/model
M2 Portable

Note that, due to the connection and age of some of my drives, hdparm -i does not always work.

# hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Model=ST9500325AS, FwRev=0001SDM1, SerialNo=5VE30D69
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=976773168
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
 AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: unknown:  ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

# hdparm -i /dev/sdd

/dev/sdd:
 HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed: Invalid argument