RE: [COMP] Volume serial number on disk drives

I've already written a program to change it.  I wrote it for the Washington
State DOT.  They need to change the serial number on all their computers to
get a validation code from a software vendor.  Since they cloned all the
drives, they all have the same serial number which cause problems.  They are
just afraid to use it because I'm an "amateur" and they want to make sure my
program won't cause problems, so I have to tell them why it won't.

MVF

-----Original Message-----
From: weez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:weez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, December 10, 1999 9:24 PM
To: Avenir Mailing List (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [COMP] Volume serial number on disk drives




On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Michael V. Franklin wrote:

> Every drive in windows (hard disk or floppy) has a volume serial number.
> It's a 4 byte number that resides on the boot sector of the disk.  If you
do
> a "dir" at the command prompt, you will see the volume serial number of
the
> drive.  What is this number for?  What are the consequences of changing
this
> number?

Interesting question. :)  The only thing that I can tell that it's ever
used for is to allow you to identify which disk is where -- ever get that
"Please insert the disk with serial number..." while trying to install
software when you've removed the disk halfway through?

I'm not sure what changing that number would do (I assume it's possible).
I'll ask around...

John



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