RE: Encase and data recovery

From: Paul Sanderson (paulat_private)
Date: Thu Mar 21 2002 - 09:05:58 PST

  • Next message: RSG: "Re: Encase and data recovery"

    Excuse me rambling but
    
    This is an interesting one. Whilst it should be reasonably straight forward
    to write a firmware imager for IDE disk I think that SCSI disks will be
    another kettle of fish. SCSI drives are normally accessed through the ASPI
    interface under DOS and ASPI/SPTI under Windows. ASPI is a DOS/Windows
    library and SPTI is a Windows library these would either need to be replaced
    or bypassed for your idea to work.
    
    I haven't played with Direct access to SCSI for many years but if memory
    serves me each card is basically different so you either need to specify a
    particular controller card in the PC or write for all of them...
    
    I have a logicube and have used a solo and although both seem to fit your
    requirements both are running programs - albeit from firmware. Each of the
    machines has a sequence of buttons that you can use to interrogate the
    source and destination. erase the destination, decide what you can do on an
    error situation... There are also different versions of the firmware
    floating around. So depending on what you do before you actually press the
    'clone now' button, as it is on the logicube, what state is the machine in?
    
    My preferred solution is to read the drive using two separate utilities. if
    I were to be paranoid I would use Encase to image via a FastBloc and one of
    my own utils to read the drive and calculate an MD5 hash (preferably doing
    one using X/BIOS calls and one using direct access). If the Hashes are the
    same then I believe that I can convince a jury that everything is working
    fine.
    
    Your point about the jury being non-techy is a fair one but what makes you
    think they will understand your solution. Most people/jurors are at least
    familiar with PC's you get to explain to them that this is a PC with a
    difference..
    
    Not knocking your idea - just food for thought
    
    Paul
    
    ===================================
    Paul Sanderson
    T. #44 1869 325667
    F. #44 1869 369001
    M. #44 7808 773856
    http://www.sandersonforensics.co.uk
    ===================================
    
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Mike Shaw [mailto:mshawat_private]
    Sent: 21 March 2002 16:10
    To: mail@computer-security-awareness.co.uk; rsgilmoreat_private;
    forensicsat_private
    Subject: Re: Encase and data recovery
    
    
    
    >
    >I'm afaid not. "Copy-II-PC" ran as a DOS application. I'm suggesting
    >a totally OS-free system using a few kB of dedicated machine code.
    
    I think the CopyIIPC system comment was somewhat toungue-in-cheek, but
    there was actually a CopyIIPC floppy controller you could get that would
    turn your PC into a byte by byte disk copying machine.  This is pretty much
    what you're talking about right?
    
    -Mike
    
    
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