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Get the hard disk serial number or Motherboard serial numberTag(s): Varia


When you need to know hardware details, Java is not the best tool unless you call a JNI routine or an external utility. The JNI solution is always the best because it is designed to interact closely with Java but it may be more complex to develop. If your need is simple (no interaction) and the need to be cross plateform is not present then calling an external utility is maybe "a good enough" choice.

In these 2 examples, we create the appropriate VBS script file on-the-fly and capture its output. They are very Windows oriented since they rely on the "Windows Script Host" to execute the generated scripts.

The vbscript queries a WMI class to get a specific hardware information. Here we are using the Win32_BaseBoard but they are many others, see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa389273.aspx for complete list.

Motherboard serial number
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class MiscUtils {
  private MiscUtils() {  }

  public static String getMotherboardSN() {
  String result = "";
    try {
      File file = File.createTempFile("realhowto",".vbs");
      file.deleteOnExit();
      FileWriter fw = new java.io.FileWriter(file);

      String vbs =
         "Set objWMIService = GetObject(\"winmgmts:\\\\.\\root\\cimv2\")\n"
        + "Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery _ \n"
        + "   (\"Select * from Win32_BaseBoard\") \n"
        + "For Each objItem in colItems \n"
        + "    Wscript.Echo objItem.SerialNumber \n"
        + "    exit for  ' do the first cpu only! \n"
        + "Next \n";

      fw.write(vbs);
      fw.close();
      Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cscript //NoLogo " + file.getPath());
      BufferedReader input =
        new BufferedReader
          (new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
      String line;
      while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) {
         result += line;
      }
      input.close();
    }
    catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return result.trim();
  }

  public static void main(String[] args){
    String cpuId = MiscUtils.getMotherboardSN();
    javax.swing.JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog((java.awt.Component)
         null, cpuId, "Motherboard serial number",
         javax.swing.JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION);
  }
}
Hard disk serial number

This serial number is created by the OS where formatting the drive and it's not the manufacturer serial number. It's unique, because it is created on the fly based on the current time information. AFAIK, there is no API that return that the manufacturer SN. At best, the SN of the HD firmware can be read but this will involve some very low-level API calls. Keep in mind that even if you get that number, there is no warranty that it will be unique since each manufacturer can assign the SN as they wish. 

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;

public class DiskUtils {
  private DiskUtils() {  }

  public static String getSerialNumber(String drive) {
  String result = "";
    try {
      File file = File.createTempFile("realhowto",".vbs");
      file.deleteOnExit();
      FileWriter fw = new java.io.FileWriter(file);

      String vbs = "Set objFSO = CreateObject(\"Scripting.FileSystemObject\")\n"
                  +"Set colDrives = objFSO.Drives\n"
                  +"Set objDrive = colDrives.item(\"" + drive + "\")\n"
                  +"Wscript.Echo objDrive.SerialNumber";  // see note
      fw.write(vbs);
      fw.close();
      Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("cscript //NoLogo " + file.getPath());
      BufferedReader input =
        new BufferedReader
          (new InputStreamReader(p.getInputStream()));
      String line;
      while ((line = input.readLine()) != null) {
         result += line;
      }
      input.close();
    }
    catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return result.trim();
  }

  public static void main(String[] args){
    String sn = DiskUtils.getSerialNumber("C");
    javax.swing.JOptionPane.showConfirmDialog((java.awt.Component)
         null, sn, "Serial Number of C:",
         javax.swing.JOptionPane.DEFAULT_OPTION);
  }
}

NOTE : Other properties : objDrive.AvailableSpace/DriveType/FileSystem/IsReady