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The Volume Serial Number (VSN) for your hard drive is a unique identifier assigned to a disk volume when it is formatted. It is used primarily for system identification and management purposes. This number helps the operating system and software track and manage different storage devices, particularly when performing tasks like software licensing, disk management, and file system integrity checks. Some software may use the VSN as part of a copy protection scheme to ensure that the software is only used on a specific machine.
If you need to change the volume serial number for your hard drive for some reason such as software licensing or maybe you cloned your drive and it changed the serial number, it’s fairly easy to do so using a free tool you can download online. To view the volume serial number associated with your hard drive, you can simply open a command prompt by typing CMD in the Windows taskbar search box and then choose the Command Prompt option. Then you will need to choose the drive you want to view the serial number for. For example, if you want to check your E drive, you can type E: at the prompt and press enter.
To view the current volume serial number, simply type vol at the prompt and press enter. You will then be shown the volume name\label and the current serial number.
To change this number, we will be using a free tool called Volume Serial Number Changer which can be downloaded here. Once you install and run the software, you can see the same volume number listed after you choose the correct hard drive.
To change this number, you can enter the new number in the New Volume Serial Number section. You can only use numbers 0-9 and letters A-F for your new serial number. You can also add a comment just in case you change this number often.
Once you enter the new number, simply click on the Change button and you will be prompted to reboot your computer.
After you reboot, you can open the command prompt once again and use the vol command to make sure that the serial number has been changed correctly.
As you can see, it’s not difficult to change the volume serial number for your hard drive in Windows if you have the right tool for the job.
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