Vista - Setting hard disk ID

Hi All

Is there any way to set the hard disk ID of a virtual drive. My problem is I
am trying to install some software on to a virtual machine which uses the
hard disk id as a security key. I have tried running Hardware_IDExtractor.exe
on the virtual machine and is shows the hard drive ID is blank. Is it posible
to set this "hardware" ID for a virtual drive, or get the virtual machine to
report the ID of the host hard disk.

PS. I don't want to install the software on the host machine because it
conflicts with other software I already have.

Both host and virtual machines are Windows XP Pro SP2.

Hope you can help
Thanks
A Hoyle

On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 06:13:00 -0700, in microsoft.public.virtualpc, AHoyle
<AHoyle@xxxxxx>, wrote
Not overly sure what you mean, but it sounds like you want to use the DOS
"label" command to set a volume ID..................

(enter cmd in the XP SP2 run box to get a DOS screen........)

FACE

"FACE" wrote:Hi Face

Sorry for not been clear enough. I am refering to the hardware disk ID, not
the volume ID. All physical hard disk have a unique ID number built into
them. The software I need to install uses this ID number as a key to
generating a activation code. From my testing I have found the hardware disk
ID of my virtual machine is blank. My question is can I set up my virtual
machine to have a virtual hardware ID. A hardware ID set by me, a random
fixed number, or the ID of the host drive would do.

Thanks in advance
A Hoyle

On Tue, 7 Oct 2008 14:51:01 -0700, in microsoft.public.virtualpc, AHoyle
<AHoyle@xxxxxx>, wrote

Hi game rules, :-)

You most likely used the VOL command to get your host's serial ID.

Though you probably do not need to, you may want to read this (notice the
caveats near the end about fat32)
http://www.brettglass.com/ttr19980206a.html

And then maybe look into this:

http://www.driverforum.com/harddrive/1116.html

No guarantees whatever...........


FACE

One more. Maybe, you asking about NTFS or FAT volume ID,
it looks like FFE3-A13D.
If so, try to use VolumeID utilite from sysinternals (look here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb897436.aspx) inside of
virtual machine.

"FACE" wrote:

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:55:01 -0700, hex_messer
<hexmesser@xxxxxx> wrote:
Looks OK, but given the wording of the disclaimer about changing the
VolID on a disk in use it might be problematic to change it if it is
the boot drive.
But one way would probably be to temporarily attach the drive to
another guest as a secondary drive and change the Volume ID from
within that guest. Then disconnect the drive from that guest and start
the original guest again.

But....
Is there in the VHD file format description any information concerning
exactly *where* on the disk the volume ID is saved? If this was known
then a utility on the host should be able to manipulate this value.
Since different partitions get different IDs it seems natural that it
would be in the partition table somewhere...

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:14:45 +0200, Bo Berglund <boberglund@xxxxxx>
wrote:
I tested the SysInternals utility on a USB connected 2.5" drive.
The disclaimer that the change will not be visible until the system is
rebooted is incorrect. What is actually working is disconnecting and
then connecting the drive again. The new VolID will be available then.

Strangely there must be something else involved in the detection of a
drive, because when I reconnected it I got the same drive letter as
before so there is something else than VolID tha WinXP uses to
recognize an NTFS drive.
Wonder what that is?

--

Bo Berglund (Sweden)

Bo Berglund wrote:
Bo,

I think that the info on this link ("Drive signature and drive letters"):

http://www.multibooters.co.uk/mbr.html

is similar between Vista and (at least) XP:

"On Windows bootup the partition number is compared with the disk
signature and if they match then the partition will be assigned the same
drive letter that had previously been allocated to it."

Jim