Most digital evidence is stored within the computer's file system, but understanding how file systems work is one of the most technically challenging concepts for a digital investigator because there exists little documentation. Now, security expert Brian Carrier has written a reference for everyone who wants to understand and be able to testify about how file system analysis is performed." "Coverage includes: preserving the digital crime scene and duplicating hard disks for "dead analysis"; identifying hidden data on a disk's Host Protected Area (HPA); reading source data: direct versus BIOS access, dead versus live acquisition, error handling, and more; analyzing DOS, Apple, and GPT partitions, BSD disk labels, and Sun Volume Table of Contents using key concepts, data structures, and specific techniques; analyzing the contents of multiple disk volumes, such as RAID and disk spanning; analyzing FAT, NTFS, Ext2, Ext3, UFS1, and UFS2 file systems using key concepts, data structures, and specific techniques; finding evidence - file metadata, recovery of deleted files, data hiding locations, and more; and using The Sleuth Kit (TSK), Autopsy Forensic Browser, and related open source tools." "Whether you're a digital forensics specialist, incident response team member, law enforcement officer, corporate security specialist, or auditor, this book will become an indispensable resource for forensic investigations, no matter what analysis tools you use