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[source:Cprogramming]

you could check out DispHelper, especially the wmi.c sample. DispHelper allows you to use the WMI scripting interfaces, which are vastly easier to use than the C/C++ interfaces.

This is a simple sample to show how to get drive serial numbers.

Code:

#include "disphelper.h"
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
	DISPATCH_OBJ(wmiSvc);
	DISPATCH_OBJ(colMedia);

	dhInitialize(TRUE);
	dhToggleExceptions(TRUE);

	dhGetObject(L"winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\\\.\\root\\cimv2", NULL, &wmiSvc);
	dhGetValue(L"%o", &colMedia, wmiSvc, L".ExecQuery(%S)",  L"SELECT * FROM Win32_PhysicalMedia");

	FOR_EACH(wmiMediaItem, colMedia, NULL)
	{
		char *pszSerial = NULL;
		char *pszTag    = NULL;

		dhGetValue(L"%s", &pszTag,    wmiMediaItem, L".Tag");
		dhGetValue(L"%s", &pszSerial, wmiMediaItem, L".SerialNumber");
		printf("The serial number of '%s' is '%s'.\n", pszTag, pszSerial);

		dhFreeString(pszTag);
		dhFreeString(pszSerial);

	} NEXT(wmiMediaItem);

	SAFE_RELEASE(colMedia);
	SAFE_RELEASE(wmiSvc);

	dhUninitialize(TRUE);
	getchar();
	return 0;
}

which will return something like:

Code:

The serial number of '\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0' is 'WD-WM48D7214546'.
The serial number of '\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1' is 'WD-WM3493798728'.

However, the Win32_PhysicalMedia class is only available on WinXP and Win2003 and requires administrator access. For a more universal (and vastly more complex) solution, you may wish to look at the links below.
Get Hard Disk ID
Get Harddisk Information

EDIT: Make sure to remove the spaces that the board software has inserted in the word « root » in the sample code.

That all seems rather excessive. Why not just use the API salem provided?

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>

DWORD dwVolSerial;
BOOL bIsRetrieved;

int main() {

   bIsRetrieved = GetVolumeInformation("C:\\",NULL,NULL,&dwVolSerial,NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL);

   if (bIsRetrieved) {
      printf("Serial number of drive C is %X\n",dwVolSerial);
   } else {
      printf("Could not retrieve\n");
   }

   return 0;
}

returns:

Code:

Serial number of drive C is D403B623

That’s fine, if you want the volume serial number. However, the volume serial number is not the hard disk serial number and can change, either by formatting or with a simple utility.

The volume serial number can also be retrieved with WMI.

Code:

#include "disphelper.h"
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
	DISPATCH_OBJ(wmiDisk);
	char* pszSerial = NULL;

	dhInitialize(TRUE);
	dhToggleExceptions(TRUE);

	dhGetObject(L"winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\\\.\\root\\cimv2:Win32_LogicalDisk='C:'",
	                   NULL, &wmiDisk);
	dhGetValue(L"%s", &pszSerial, wmiDisk, L".VolumeSerialNumber");

	printf("The serial number of 'C:' is %s\n", pszSerial);

	dhFreeString(pszSerial);
	SAFE_RELEASE(wmiDisk);

	dhUninitialize(TRUE);
	getchar();
	return 0;
}

The cool thing about WMI is that you can change the dot in the connection string to a computer name and get the same information from a remote computer without any other changes to your code. Try doing that with most WinApi functions.

EDIT: Remove the spaces in the word « root » in the sample code to compile.