Here’s a quick way to find out more about your hard disk. You can get the serial number, part number, firmware level, size and much more. Just see the sample below.
hdparm -I [device]
hdparm -I /dev/sda
[danesh@pandora Movies]$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda

`/dev/sda: ATA device, with non-removable media Model Number: WDC WD2500JS-75NCB3 Serial Number: WD-WCANKF265386 Firmware Revision: 10.02E04 Standards: Supported: 7 6 5 4 Likely used: 8 Configuration: Logical max current cylinders 16383 16383 heads 16 16 sectors/track 63 63 – CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064 LBA user addressable sectors: 268435455 LBA48 user addressable sectors: 488281250 Logical/Physical Sector size: 512 bytes device size with M = 10241024: 238418 MBytes device size with M = 10001000: 250000 MBytes (250 GB) cache/buffer size = 8192 KBytes Capabilities: LBA, IORDY(can be disabled) Queue depth: 32 Standby timer values: spec’d by Standard, with device specific minimum R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16 Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 128 DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns Commands/features: Enabled Supported:

  • SMART feature set Security Mode feature set
  • Power Management feature set
  • Write cache
  • Look-ahead
  • Host Protected Area feature set
  • WRITE_BUFFER command
  • READ_BUFFER command
  • NOP cmd
  • DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE Power-Up In Standby feature set
  • SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up SET_MAX security extension
  • Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
  • 48-bit Address feature set
  • Device Configuration Overlay feature set
  • Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
  • FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
  • SMART error logging
  • SMART self-test
  • General Purpose Logging feature set
  • Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
  • Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
  • Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
  • Host-initiated interface power management
  • Phy event counters DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization Device-initiated interface power management
  • Software settings preservation
  • SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
  • SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
  • SCT LBA Segment Access (AC2)
  • SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
  • SCT Features Control (AC4)
  • SCT Data Tables (AC5) unknown 206[12] (vendor specific) Security: Master password revision code = 65534 supported not enabled not locked frozen not expired: security count not supported: enhanced erase Checksum: correct `
    Hope it comes in handy for you. Know a better way? Please share