How to Find a Drive's Volume Label or Serial Number

The volume label of a drive isn't usually an important piece of information, but it can be when executing certain commands from the Command Prompt.

For example, the format command requires that you enter the volume label of a drive you're formatting, assuming it has one. The convert command does the same. If you don't know the volume label, you can't complete the task.

The volume serial number is less important but could be a valuable piece of information in some specific circumstances.

vol command in Windows 10

Follow these quick and easy steps to find the volume label or volume serial number from the Command Prompt.

The steps described below apply to Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.

How to Find a Drive's Volume Label or Serial Number From the Command Prompt

  1. In Windows 10 and Windows 8, you can find Command Prompt by right-clicking the Start button. In older versions of Windows, either search the Start menu for cmd or find Command Prompt in the Accessories folder of the Start menu.

    A regular Command Prompt is fine; you don't need to open an elevated one.

    If Windows isn't accessible, Command Prompt it is also available from Safe Mode in all versions of Windows, from Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10 and Windows 8, and from System Recovery Options in Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

  2. At the prompt, execute the vol command as shown below, and then press Enter:

    vol c: 

    Change c to whatever drive you want to find the volume label or serial number for. For example, if you want to find this information for the E drive, type vol e: instead.

  3. Immediately below the prompt, you should see two lines similar to the following:

    Volume in drive C is System Volume 
    Serial Number is C1F3-A79E 

    As you can see, the volume label for the C drive is System and the volume serial number is C1F3-A79E.

    If you instead see Volume in drive C has no label then it means exactly that. Volume labels are optional and your drive happens to not have one.

  4. Now that you've found the volume label or volume serial number, you can close Command Prompt if you're finished or you can continue executing additional commands.

Other Ways to Find the Volume Label or Serial Number

Using the Command Prompt is the fastest way to find this information but there are other methods, too.

One is to use a free system information tool like the free Speccy program. With that program, in particular, find the Storage section and pick the hard drive you want the information for. Both the serial number and specific volume serial numbers are shown for each drive.

Another way is to use the drive's properties from within Windows. Hit the WIN+E keyboard shortcut to open the list of hard drives (if you're using Windows 10, also choose This PC from the left).

Hard drive properties in Windows 10

Next to each drive is the respective volume label. Right-click one (or tap-and-hold) and choose Properties to see it there, too, and to change the drive's volume label.