How to record drive serial numbers in ITAD: five ways compared
Typing, barcode scanners, erasure software, camera apps and Serial Xtractor. Each one is best at something, and most operators use more than one.
Applies toUnited States
By Nabel Solutions · Published October 22, 2026 · Last checked October 22, 2026
We make Serial Xtractor, one of the five below.
Every drive that leaves a client’s site has to end up on a certificate by its serial number. There are five ways to get it there. Each one is best at something.
| Method | Best for | Weak where |
|---|---|---|
| Typing it by hand | Any label, any site, no kit | Slow, and easy to mistype |
| A barcode scanner | Labels where the serial is the only barcode | Most drive labels carry several barcodes, and the scanner reads whichever one it’s pointed at |
| Erasure software reading the drive | Working drives being wiped for reuse | A drive that won’t power up, or never gets connected, can’t report its serial |
| A camera app that reads the label | Speed on labels it can read | Most don’t publish how accurate they are, or how the figure was measured |
| Serial Xtractor | Matching a camera-read serial against the client’s asset list, with a published method | Bench figures today; field figures come with customers’ permission |
1 · Typing it by hand
It works on every label and needs nothing but a keyboard. It’s also a common source of mistakes: the wrong string copied, a character dropped, a spreadsheet anyone can edit afterwards.
2 · A barcode scanner
Fast, familiar and very accurate when it reads. The catch is the drive label: a serial, a model number, a part number, a date code and often two or three barcodes. The scanner logs whichever one it’s aimed at, so on a long shift the record is only as good as the aim.
Scanners can be set to filter by length or pattern. That works when every drive comes from one maker. Drive labels vary by maker, though, and a rule that finds the serial on one can pick the part number on another.
3 · Erasure software reading the drive
When a drive is wiped, the erasure software reads the serial straight from the drive, so it can’t be mistyped. That’s the best record there is for a working drive. It says nothing about the drives that won’t power up or go straight to the shredder, and those are the ones a certificate of destruction is for.
4 · A camera app that reads the label
Point a phone at the label and the app reads it. Several vendors offer this. Scanflow, for example, describes computer-vision scanning for ITAD with offline capture and automated certificates, and publishes accuracy as 99%+, ≥98%, >95% and 95%, each with a condition and none with a method (scanflow.ai, read 12–21 October 2026). Ask any camera vendor how its accuracy figure was measured, and how it tells the serial from the other strings on the label.
5 · Serial Xtractor
A photo of the label, and Serial Xtractor picks the serial. It picks the right one on 97.7% of labels it can read: 209 of 214 readable labels out of 241, five-fold cross-validation, on our bench. Each serial is matched against the client’s asset list, and anything unclear waits for the operator before it’s recorded. Then one click gives a certificate of destruction for the job and a certificate-of-sanitization label for each drive.
Which one to use
Most operators use more than one: erasure software for working drives, and a way to read the label for everything else. If every drive comes from one maker and the serial is always barcoded, a scanner set to filter will do. If labels vary, or the record has to stand up to an investigator, choose the method that can show how it got the serial.