An embodiment of this invention provides a system and method for a diagnostic computer application executing on a host computer to extract vendor unique diagnostic information from an attached peripheral device. The peripheral device is pre-configured to respond with device unique information in response to certain standard interface protocol inquiries. Standard interface inquiry commands are used to extract detailed instructions from the device. These instructions may contain device unique small computer system interface (SCSI) command sequences, for example. The command sequences allow a user of the host computer to extract detailed data from the peripheral device about the peripheral device's operational, performance and health statistics.