A Volume Serial Number (also known as a VSN) is a unique serial number assigned to an optical disc (CD or DVD) or hard drive after formatting. The Volume Serial Number is added by Microsoft and IBM so that the operating system can recognize that an optical disk or drive has been changed on the system. Until then, the only way to identify this was by the volume label (Folder Name) that the user assigned to each storage drive. But in this way, if the user gave the same (Volume) name to two (or more) disks, the problem occurred. To get around this problem, Microsoft and IBM decided to assign a new unique number in hexadecimal (called a Volume Serial Number or Volume ID or VSN) when a disk (optical disk or hard disk) is formatted.
In simple words, Volume serial number shows the exact time of the format {Date, Month, Year and Time (Hour, Minute and Second)}. The VSN is changed with any formatting of the disk, so if you reinstall Windows and format the system disk, Windows will ask for activation again.
Using VSN, some software vendors use the Volume Serial Number to prevent piracy of their products. This means that if the Volume serial number is different from the VSN number of the original optical disc that the product was shipped with, or the VSN number of the hard drive on which the software was first installed, the software from these manufacturers will not work. In addition, this method was previously used by multiplayer game sellers to ban players who tried to cheat. Currently, this method is useless, because game or software vendors now use a hard-coded serial number (HDD Manufacture S/N embedded in the firmware) to identify (ban) cheaters, or they ban the CD key.
In this article, you’ll find detailed instructions on how to change the Volume Serial Number (aka Volume ID or VSN) of your hard drive.
How to change HDD volume serial number (VolumeID).
Option 1: Using the Sysinternals VolumeID switcher.
VolumeID by Mark Russinovich, This is another free program that helps you change the volume identifiers of drivers from a command line window.
1. Download VolumeID.
2. extract”volumeid.zip” copy file contents and extracted files (“Volumeid.exe“&”Eula.txt“) to the root of the C: drive.
3. Open an elevated command prompt. For this:
In Windows 7, Vista and XP: 1. go to Start > All Programs. 2. Click expand Accessories. 2. Right click enabled Command line and select “Run as administrator“
In Windows 8
Right click on the screen lower left corner and from the pop-up menu “Command Prompt (Admin)“.
4. Let’s say we want to change the Volume serial number of the C: system drive.
Enter the following command to view the serial number of the current C: drive in a command prompt window
Vol
4a. “Vol” command should return the Volume serial number. In this example, the VSN “94F8-9C08“.
– To change the current VSN –
5. Go to the root folder of drive C: (where “volumeid.exe” located/saved) and enter the following command:
voluminousdriver letter:> xxxx-xxxx
* As
** such as xxxx-xxxx : enter the serial number of the new folder (eg 74F8-9C08).
In this example, I want to change the VSN of the C drive: and I changed only one character (the first) of the old VSN to specify the new one. So the full command should be:
volume c: 74F8-9C08
5. When “voluminous” command will update the volume ID of your disk, close the command prompt window and restart your computer.
Option 2: Using a hard drive serial number converter.
Update: The download link is no longer working (removed).
The second free tool that you can use to change the volume serial number is called Hard disk serial number changer. The program can only change the serial number of the HDD volume, not the hard-coded serial number.
1. Download it Hard disk serial number changer.
2. Right click at HardDiskSerialNumberChanger.exe & select Run as administrator.
3. Accept UAC warning message.
4. Select the drive whose serial number you want to change. (eg “C:”).
5. Enter the new serial number in the format XXXX-XXXX.
6. press Change.
7. press Yes and restart your computer.
That’s it!
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