Get Drive Serial Number

I have seen this question before, but I can't seem to find any answers.

Is it possible to get the drive serial number (for protection / verification
of written routines)

(vla-get-property drive 'serialnumber) --which does not work for me--

I have seen a lisp routine on
http://www.menziengineering.ch/Downloads/Download.htm#22 but it requires
additional installation of a scripting file named ScrRun.dll. I would like
to avoid this and think this should be possible within visual lisp.

any ideas?

Robert Good.

 

Using DosLib.
(setq sn (dos_serialno "C:"))

Bob
www.bobscadshop.com

 

An alternative method using native Autolisp;

; SERIAL.LSP - Routine to return the hard drive volume label.
; ==========
; suggested use ---> (setq SERIAL_NUM (SERIAL))
;
(defun SERIAL (/ OLDECHO FILE NUM )
(setq OLDECHO (getvar "CMDECHO"))
(setvar "CMDECHO" 0)
(command "_SHELL" "DIR C:\\ DIR > C:\\DIRLIST.TXT")
(while (not (findfile "C:/DIRLIST.TXT")))
(setq FILE (open "C:/DIRLIST.TXT" "r"))
(setq NUM (read-line FILE))
(setq NUM (read-line FILE))
(close FILE)
(while (not NUM))
(command "_SHELL" "ERASE C:\\DIRLIST.TXT")
(setvar "CMDECHO" OLDECHO)
(princ NUM)
)

 

Thanks,
I will get the doslib and put'er to work.

Thanks Bob.

 

The serial number can also be found in the registry somewhere. I am not sure where though.

Thanks Chad Wanelss

 

Perhaps only with XP? Win2K here and I was
unable to locate the serial number in the registry.

 

I have been trying to do this myself, but so far have not had any luck.
There is a Windows class that can be used from VB (and therefore ActiveX and
then VLisp (maybe)), but it only works on Windows XP. I have been trying ot
find out if it can be used on other OS's but so far no luck. I have found
someone that says he can get it on any OS without using this class, but he
has not gotten back to me yet. The class is Win32_PhysicalMedia just in case
you want to try it.

 

Does this return the HardDrive serial number from the firmware, or just the
volume serial number? The volume serial number can easily be changed by the
user.

 

This gives you the volume serial number and not the actual hard drive serial
number. The user can easily change the volume serial number.

 

That would be a good question for McNeel & Assoc's.
I (think) it is just the volume serial number. But, this is good.
If you 'start' your app, checking the Hard Drive SN, and the user decides to change it..your app would not fire. I think that's the point.

Bob

 

With all due respect to Doslib, it's a wonderful utility. But beware
that if you are using dos_serial number to get the hard drive serial
number for copy protection, that your scheme might be easily cracked if
someone knows at least one of the harddisk serial numbers that you
application checks for.

Say for example on a machine that is licensed to use your application,
dos_serialno returns might return something like the following:

(dos_serialno "C:") -> "3d575430"

Know if someone knows a good hard disk serial number they could
overwrite the dos_serialno function like this allow your application to run:

(defun dos_serialno (x)
(print "3d575430")
(princ)
)

One way to deal with this issue is reload DosLib just before running a
check on the serial number.

Regards,
Steve Doman

 

Yes, but it is easily copied to another system, so it provides minimal copy
protection. If I know an application used the volume serial number, I can
copy the software to another system and set its volume serial number to be
the same and the software will work fine. I have finally found out how to
get the "true" serial number, but it is complex and in "C" only. I do not
know enough about VB or VLisp to know if it can be translated to them, and
kinda doubt it, since it relies on specific structures with specific byte
alignment and has to do a lot of bit manipulation to get the serial number.
I am also still testing it in all environments with limited permission users
and such.

 

Even reloading doslib would not be a guarentee, since they could replace it
with a different file named the same that loads the true doslib file and
then redefines the function.

 

Randy,

Good point. And alternative approach is to write your own function to
get the hard disk serial number. I don't have any experience doing
that, but I did read a tutorial by Stig Madsen at the link below, that
tells how to use AutoLISP to access the Windows Script Host in order to
get the hard disk serial number. I haven't tried this method yet, but
it looks promising.

http://www.afralisp.com/lisp/script1.htm

Steve

 

Hi Robert

Visit my homepage -> Free Stuff and search for 'VxGetDriveInfos'...

Cheers

 

Juerg,
your routine requires the use of the ScrRun.dll. Im guessing this is the windows scripting extension. How can you tell thru visual lisp that this program is running.
also, if it is not running / installed can you do it thru lisp?

 

Hi Robert

Windows Script Components are part of the OS since Win2k/XP. If you're using
WinNT4/Win9x you've to download Windows Script Runtime from:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting

To check the availability of the components by Vlisp use following code:
(defun VxCheckWsc ( / FilSys)
(if (vl-catch-all-error-p
(vl-catch-all-apply
(function
(lambda ()
(setq FilSys (vlax-create-object "Scripting.FileSystemObject"))
)
)
)
)
(alert "Windows Script Components not installed.")
(or (vlax-release-object FilSys) T)
)
)
Returns T if installed, else nil (and an error message)

Installation can be done by the components setup wizard.

Cheers

 

Great,

Thanks Jurg.

 

Glad to help you...

Cheers

 

I ran a quick test and I am not sure what this is getting, but it is not the
drive serial number. It is some variation of the volume serial number. If I
run it with "c:" or "d:" I get different numbers, even though both those
drives are partitions on the same physical drive. If it is some variation of
the volume serial number it can be duplicated on another machine.