Re: dd for windows and imaging a 40Gb drive

[Paul daSilva <pdasilva () polr org>]

Murad,

The option is up to you and your needs.  Booting the Windows machine 
from a Linux LiveCD will give you the ability to snapshot the entire 
partition or hard drive as a point in time reference, with no 
'intereference' - meaning no changes to the filesystem as you capture 
its image.

You could try to copy the files you need while booted into Windows, 
copying the desired .pst file over the network.  I'm not sure if this 
will work when the file is in use (opened under Outlook or whatever by 
that user), but you can give it a try.  Also, there is a dd for Windows 
which may have slightly different capabilities than the original dd, 
like dumping data from a live file system?  I'm not sure, but you can 
check it out -- they do use slightly different conventions with respect 
to drives and partitions.  Here are some links:

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd
http://users.erols.com/gmgarner/forensics/

Lastly, yes, if you book from a Linux Live CD, your disks and partitions 
will assume that naming convention:

/dev/hda    primary hard drive
/dev/hdb   secondary drive on the primary IDE
/dev/hdc    first drive on secondary IDE
/dev/hdd   secondary drive on secondary IDE

/dev/hda1   first partition on primary drive
and so on....

Cheers,
Paul


Murad Talukdar wrote:
> Thanks Paul,
> Now the source machine in question is a winxp box so I take it that running
> dd and piping to nc would mean booting to a live cd(on source machine) in
> order to prevent any 'interference' with the data?
> Now I'm assuming that when running a live cd (knoppix std or FIRE eg) will
> mean that the main partition should show up as /dev/had or similar even
> though it is a windows box. Is that right?
> What I really need is a copy of this user's pst files for legal to check for
> 'incriminating' (ie non-criminal) emails but I did suggest to them that
> taking an image of the drive first, for possible later use may be advisable.
> Now I'm not a forensic expert and I did say that normally this should be
> done by such but they have said that it really is just a preliminary
> investigation. <shrug>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul daSilva [mailto:pdasilva () polr org] 
> Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 8:47 AM
> To: Murad Talukdar
> Cc: security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: Re: dd for windows and imaging a 40Gb drive
>
> Murad,
>
> I can't answer how long the process will take, as far too many factors 
> are involved.
> However, to use dd over the network, you could consider piping its 
> output to netcat.
>
> On the Target system, where image will be dumped to, run:
> nc -l -p 9000 | dd of=/path/image-file.dd (or of=/dev/hda)
>
> On the Source system to be imaged, run:
> dd if=/dev/hda | nc 192.168.1.120 9000
>
> Be sure to edit the Target system output file of=, as it can be a file 
> or you can dd to another disk or partition (clone).
>
> Be sure to edit the Source system input file if= (right drive device and 
> partition number), and use the right IP address and port number for the 
> Target system). Googling "dd and netcat" will give you lots more 
> information on this topic.
>
> Cheers,
> Paul
>
>
>
> Murad Talukdar wrote:
>   
> > Hi all,
> > I need to estimate how long it would take to image a 40gb drive with a
> > single partition on it using dd. (I guess this is more dependant on write
> > speeds and throughput than anything else)
> > Also, what would be the syntax of the output file be if I were to image
> > across the network? Or can dd be used by using a crossover cable and
> >     
> mapping
>   
> > drives first?
> > But, if I were to map a drive to the machine in question, does that
> > 'interfere' with the drive in any way? 
> > I'm planning to use dd for windows-which I can get to work fine for
> > files/folders on my local machine but am struggling over the network
> >     
> because
>   
> > I'm not sure of the syntax. 
> > No man dd on windows.
> >  
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >     
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