Your Laptop has been stolen!!! A week later, you find a laptop on a self at a local pawn shop that you are sure is your. The labels with the serial numbers have been pealed off the bottom, and the hard drive has been wiped clean. How can you prove that this is your laptop?
Stickers on the bottom of your computer can be removed, any identification scratched into the case can be scratches out, and the hard drive can be wiped clean.
However: there is information in your computer that was put there at the time of manufacturing, that can NEVER be changed. Such as the motherboard serial number, hard drive serial number, and the MAC address to name a few. This blog post will describe how to easily record all this information, and then how to latter check that laptop at the pawn show to prove if it is, or is not, the same system.
This technique I will describe here will work on Linux, Windows, and Mac computers. On netbooks, laptops, desktops, and servers as well. If fact, it will work on just about any system built after about 2008 that can be booted off of a USB drive (which is just about EVERY PC out there these days).
Step 1: Create a Linux Mint persistent live USB
In a previous blog post, I described How to create a Linux Mint persistent live USB (http://linuxmintexplained.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-to-create-linux-mint-persistent.html). You will need one of these. So the first step, if you don't already have one, is to refer to this link (previous blog post) and create one. These come in really handy, and I recommend creating more than just one of them.
Step 2: Installing lshw
How boot your computer (any computer) using the USB created in step one, and connect to the Internet. Instructions on how to do this is also included in the previous blog post (link shown above).
Once you have your computer booted into Linux Mint, hold down the [ctrl] and [alt] keys. While holding them down, tap the letter 't'. This will open a terminal window. Enter the following commands, one at a time, into that terminal window. Be sure to enter them in all lower case letters.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lshw -y
Step 3: How to use lshw
Now, in that same terminal window, enter this command. It may take a few minutes to run. The information it will display will scroll off the top of the window; you can use the scroll bar on the right to move up and down to view it.
sudo lshw
You will notices that there is all kinds of useful information in this report, not just serial numbers.
Now, to capture all this information into a text file, say for example a file called “MarysComputer.txt”, use the following command.
sudo lshw > MarysComputer.txt
This command will create a text file in your home folder on your USB stick called “MarysComputer.txt”. It will NOT be saved onto the hard drive of the computer your working on. You can of course change the file name to whatever you would like. You can then use a text editor (like gedit, pluma or even Microsoft Word) to view the information.
You can copy this file to another location, or email it to yourself for safe keeping.
Also, since it's being saved on the USB stick, when you shut down the computer and take the stick with you, the file goes with you as well.
The information in this file can latter be used to identify this computer if it should ever be necessary. Just use your Linux Mint persistent live USB to boot the computer into Linux Mint, and run the 'sudo lshw' command again. Then compare the results against the info in the text file.
That's really all there is to it.
Until next time, happing computing :)
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