Smartctl

Sometimes you need information about the model or manufacturing numbers of drives that are in a running system. If the hard disk supports SMART (most do), you can use the smartctl utility (available from the sysutils/smartmontools port) to extract the model numbers. Running smartctl -i /dev/ad4 as root on my system gives output like this:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:    WDC WD2500JB-00EVA0
Serial Number:    WD-WCAEH1028140
Firmware Version: 15.05R15
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:  6
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Thu Dec 22 10:48:33 2005 CST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled