Comment 9 for bug 190366

I don't it is a problem but a matter of preference. I dont think it's bad that ubuntu searchs for the labels instead of displaying the sda/sdb names. The problem is that by default most partitions lack a volume name.
For windows users I would advise editing the volume name directly on windows, when they come back to ubuntu they'll notice the changes. Although this would require admin rights on windows.

Mac OS X just names label-less partitions as "Untitled" (Untitled 2, Untitled 3..) etc. Perhaps the same approach could be taken here, and name them something like
Untitled (sdb)
or Untitled(xxGB volume)

I think it makes sense to use the label names instead of other names, so I think that label names should be used wherever they exist. The problem is what names to use with volumes that have no label, and clearly people are not liking the "xxGB volume".