Disk Identity

Every hardware device on a computer will have their own unique identity by which it gets identified distinctively, similarly disk will also have a unique identity which lets the computer to exclusively recognize it. Disk Identity is in form of a string which is composed of alphanumeric characters.

There are two types of Disk Identity, one is Instance ID and another is Hardware ID and usually many users gets confused by this ID’s.

• Hardware ID:This is unique ID which is defined by vendor at manufacturing time; this ID is used by Windows operating system in order to match the device to INF file. This ID is very intact and it cannot be changed very easily
• Instance ID: This ID is a system designated device identification string, that is persistent only to system restart and it will get changed when you format the partition.

There are many third party application which can be used to retrieve the Disk Identity but you can as well obtain it by using command prompt and navigating through control panel. Many users are not well versed with Disk Identity, but there are many benefits of using it.

Online multiplayer games server implement some anti-cheat system mechanism which bans the cheaters from the server depending on the Instance ID. However this identity can be changed for temporary period by utilizing any third party tool. Imagine that your computer don’t have drivers for a device then it will become an unknown device to your computer. You struggled searching a lot to download that particular driver but your search was not effective. In this situation by obtaining the Hardware ID and Instance ID you can make your search confined and efficient.

In order to get Hardware ID and Instance ID you have to navigate through, Device Manager--> Right click the unknown device--> select Properties--> select Details tab--> under property--> select Device Instance Path.