Mar 09, 2017  A serial number allows the manufacturer to identify a product and get additional information about it, for replacement, or as a means of finding compatible parts. This tutorial will show you how to find the serial number of your Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10 PC. How to update the machine type and model (MTM), serial number, or system brand ID of system BIOS menu – ThinkCentre, ThinkStation.

Last updated on March 3rd, 2016

The Volume Serial Number (also known as VSN) is a unique serial number that is assigned to an optical disk (CD or DVD) or a hard drive after formatting. The Volume Serial Number was added by Microsoft and IBM so that the operating system could recognize if an optical disk or a drive is changed on the system. By that time the only way to determine this, was the volume label (Volume Name) that the user defined to each storage disk. But that way, there was a problem if a user gave the same (Volume) name to two (or more) disks. To bypass this problem, Microsoft and IBM decided to assign a new unique number in hexadecimal form (called 'Volume Serial Number' or 'Volume ID' or 'VSN') when a drive (optical disk or hard drive) was formatted.

In simple words, the Volume Serial Number indicates the exact time {Date, Month, Year & Time (Hour, Minute & Second)} of format operation. The VSN is changed anytime you format the disk, so if you re-install Windows and you format the system disk, Windows will ask again for activation.

Taking advantage of VSN, some software vendors use the Volume Serial Number to avoid pirate copying of their products. This means that software from these vendors can not run if the Volume Serial Number is different from the VSN of the product's original optical disk that was shipped or of the hard drive that the software was first installed. Also this technique was previously used by multiplayer game vendors to ban the gamers that tried to cheat. Nowadays, this method is useless because the game or software vendors now use the hardcoded serial number (HDD Manufacture's S/N that is embedded into the firmware) to identify (ban) cheaters or they ban the CD key.

In this article you will find detailed instructions on how to change the hard drive's Volume Serial Number (aka Volume ID or VSN).

How to change HDD Volume Serial Number (VolumeID).

Option 1: Using Sysinternals VolumeID changer.

VolumeID by Mark Russinovich, is another freeware tool that helps you to change the Volume IDs of drives from command line window.

1. Download VolumeID.

2. Extract 'volumeid.zip' file contents and move the extracted files ('Volumeid.exe' & 'Eula.txt') to the root of C: drive.

3. Open an elevated command prompt. To do that:

In Windows 7, Vista & XP: 1. Go to Start > All Programs. 2. Click to expand Accessories. 2. Right click on Command Prompt and choose 'Run as administrator'

In Windows 8

Right-click at the screen's bottom-left corner and from the pop-up menu, choose 'Command Prompt (Admin)'.

4. Let's say that we want to change the Volume serial number of the system drive C:.

Inside the command prompt window, type the following command to see the current Volume Serial Number of C: drive

vol

4a. The 'vol' command should return the Volume Serial Number. In this example the VSN is '94F8-9C08'.

– To change the current VSN –

5. Navigate to the root folder of Disk C: (where 'volumeid.exe' is located/saved) and type the following command:

volumeid <driveletter:> xxxx-xxxx

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* As <driveletter:> : type the drive of the disk (drive or volume) that we want to change the VSN ('C:').

** As xxxx-xxxx : type the new Volume Serial Number (e.g. 74F8-9C08).

Windows transparency windows 10. In this example I want to change the VSN of disk C: and I have changed only one character (the first) of the old VSN to specify the new one. So the full command should be:

volumeid c: 74F8-9C08

5. When 'volumeid' command updates the Volume ID of your drive, close the command prompt window and restart your computer.

Option 2: Using Hard Disk Serial Number Changer.

Update: The download link is not working anymore (removed).

The second free tool you can use to change the Volume Serial Number is called Hard Disk Serial Number Changer. The program can change only the HDD's Volume Serial Number and not the Hardcoded Serial Number.

1. Download Hard Disk Serial Number Changer.

2. Right-click at HardDiskSerialNumberChanger.exe & select Run as Administrator.

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3. Accept the UAC warning message.

Laptop Serial Number Lookup

4. Choose the disk that you want to change the Serial Number. (e.g. 'C:').

5. Type the new serial number at this form XXXX-XXXX.

6. Press Change.

7. Click Yes and reboot your computer.

That's it!

I can't imagine a good reason for doing this.
Why not contact HP and see what they have to say?

.. they're probably stolen and they don't want them to be traced. :-0

The only one that I'm aware of that is shown by the BIOS is the CPU's Serial Number which should be switched on By default on all new hardware.
So if you want to change this Serial Number you need to change the CPU as it is encoded into the CPU and can be used to trace the individual computer that it was fitted to originally.
The other numbers are for things like a BIOS String which identifies the Make & Model of the M'Board and changing this would result in someone looking for the wrong Drivers at best and quite likely looking for the wrong thing all together at worst and loading the wrong drivers causing the system to no longer work.
While it is Technically Possible to prevent the BIOS Reporting the CPU Serial Number or even to misreport it that would involve writing a new BIOS Instruction set for every Model or variation of existing models and even resulting in killing the NB's if this was applied to the wrong Model or Revision Numbers. So exactly what is it you want to do here any much more importantly Why do you want or feel the need to do this?
This is something that I would expect from people dealing in Stolen NB's as there is no other reason to attempt this.
Col

Hp Laptop Serial Number

I just wanted to point out there are other reasons to need to change a BIOS S/N. We use a utility that records the S/N from the BIOS and adds it to our inventory database. When we replace a mother board, the S/N in the BIOS no longer matches the S/N physically on the device. We need to make those match. Dell has a utilty to accomplish this, but I have yet to find on from HP. There is a section in the HP BIOS named 'Notebook Serial Number' and that is what needs to be changed. I know this is an incredibly old post, but people still find and read this stuff, and no one gave a good answer, they just accused him of stealing the laptops. (He may have, but thats not the topic.)

Since there are local HP resellers in Brazil, importing US product is called a 'gray market' distribution channel.
Since a warranty is valuable, and buying a truckload of stolen laptops in Miami and selling them in Brazil would void the warranty, the guy is most likely doing at least two of these three things:
1) Fencing stolen merchandise
2) Attempting to Defraud HP Corp
3) Attempting to Defraud HP customers in Brazil
4) Competing unfairly with HP Dealers in Brazil
5) Evading taxes and import duties (which is why it costs more to buy it legally).
Other than that, it's perfectly legit..

From what I know, it's a utility called SNZero.exe. It is exclusively internal to HP Service Centers and repair engineers. It is proprietary and not available to the public. If you need to have the S/N changed, you will need to contact HP Support and work with them or an authorized service center to have it changed.
We just had a system board replaced on one of our laptops and the repair tech that came out, used the utility and changed the BIOS S/N all as apart of the warranty call.