Method of preventng software piracy by uniquely identifying the specific magnetic storage device the software is stored on

An apparatus for locking a software program to a specific magnetic storage device comprising:

• a detector for detecting, at a first point in time, the location of a bad area of said specific magnetic storage device and for detecting a location of a bad bit within the bad area, wherein the detector detects a bad bit by writing a test pattern in the bad area, then reads the area where the test pattern was written, compares the test pattern read against the test pattern written, and determines a bit in the read test pattern that does not match an associated bit in the written test pattern;
• and the detector also stores the location of the bad area and bad bit on said specific magnetic storage device in an identification storage area associated with a software program;
• and
• a software program execution means operative to read the location information stored in the identification storage area and to execute the software program if a current magnetic storage device includes a bad area and a bad bit at the same location as that stored in the identification storage area for said specific magnetic storage device.

An apparatus for identifying a specific magnetic storage device comprising:

• an identification storage area, associated with said specific magnetic storage device, having recorded therein a first plurality of voltages read from a specific surface area of said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time, said voltages representing data from bad bits and bad areas stored on said magnetic storage device, wherein a detector detects a bad bit by writing a test pattern in the bad area, then reads the area where the test pattern was written, compares the test pattern read against the test pattern written, and determines a bit in the lead test pattern that does not match an associated bit in the written test pattern;
• at least a first comparator operative to compare the first plurality of voltages stored in said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time
• and to compare the first plurality of voltages stored in said identification storage area with a second plurality of voltages read from a same specific surface area of a current magnetic storage device at a second point in time;
• and
• if the first and second plurality of voltages match, then the comparator outputs an identification match signal to an associated computing system.