Simply use utility called sdparm to fetch SCSI / SATA device information. Inquiry data including Vital Product Data (VPD) pages can also be displayed. Commands associated with starting and stopping the medium; loading and unloading the medium; and other housekeeping functions may also be performed by this utility.

In short you can get or set SCSI hard disk parameters. If you are using ATA ( IDE ) hard disk use hdparm utility.

Install sdparm utility

Type the following command at shell prompt:
# apt-get install sdparm
Red Hat / CentOS user can grab sdparm rpm package here.

sdparm examples

To list common mode parameters of a disk, enter:
# sdparm /dev/sda
To list the designators within the device identification VPD page of a disk:
# sdparm --inquiry /dev/sdb
To see all parameters for the caching mode page:
# sdparm --page=ca /dev/sdc
To set the “Writeback Cache Enable” bit in the current values page:
# sdparm --set=WCE /dev/sda

Further readings:

• sdparm man page