raladin and I have discussed by email that the serial number reported by getvolumninfo, the VSN of the machine is assigned by Windows with the formating of the HD and can be changed by the user. I sent him a small code snippit I found on the net which can do that and, therefore, makes the use of that serial for security purposes a potential problem.
A much more secure process would be if one can obtain the manufacturers serial number off of the HD of the subject machine, because that number and firmware would be, it would appear, much more difficult to easily report as something different that what it coded in the HD itself. raladin has apparently found a program which will read that information, although my own reading on the net suggests that it may not be easy to have a program that will read all manufactures "signatures."
I have suggested to him that his main security from such a system would be that the user of his E-Learning system would not be aware that their HD signature was being confirmed and therefore, would be less likely to attempt to muck around with attempts to change it.
Regards,