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2.2. Working with Windows and DOS Systems

Purpose and structure of file systems. Understanding File Systems
• File system
– Gives OS a road map to data on a disk
• Type of file system an OS uses determines how data is stored on the disk
• When you need to access a suspect’s computer to acquire or inspect data
– You should be familiar with both the computer’s OS and file systems
Understanding the Boot Sequence
• Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
– Computer stores system configuration and date and time information in the CMOS
• When power to the system is off
• Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) or Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)
– Contains programs that perform input and output at the hardware level
• Bootstrap process
– Contained in ROM, tells the computer how to proceed
– Displays the key or keys you press to open the CMOS setup screen
• CMOS should be modified to boot from a forensic floppy disk or CD

Understanding Disk Drives

• Disk drives are made up of one or more platters coated with magnetic material
• Disk drive components
– Geometry
– Head
– Tracks
– Cylinders
– Sectors

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• Properties handled at the drive’s hardware or firmware level

– Zone bit recording (ZBR)
– Track density
– Areal density
– Head and cylinder skew Solid-State Storage Devices
• All flash memory devices have a feature called wear-leveling
– An internal firmware feature used in solid-state drives that ensures even wear of
read/writes for all memory cells
• When dealing with solid-state devices, making a full forensic copy as soon as possible is
crucial
– In case you need to recover data from unallocated disk space
Exploring Microsoft File Structures
• In Microsoft file structures, sectors are grouped to form clusters
– Storage allocation units of one or more sectors
• Clusters range from 512 bytes up to 32,000 bytes each
• Combining sectors minimizes the overhead of writing or reading files to a disk

• Clusters are numbered sequentially starting at 0 in NTFS and 2 in FAT

– First sector of all disks contains a system area, the boot record, and a file structure
database
• OS assigns these cluster numbers, called logical addresses

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• Sector numbers are called physical addresses

• Clusters and their addresses are specific to a logical disk drive, which is a disk partition

Disk Partitions
• A partition is a logical drive
• Windows OSs can have three primary partitions followed by an extended partition that
can contain one or more logical drives
• Hidden partitions or voids
– Large unused gaps between partitions on a disk
• Partition gap
– Unused space between partitions

• The partition table is in the Master Boot Record (MBR)

– Located at sector 0 of the disk drive
• MBR stores information about partitions on a disk and their locations, size, and other
important items
• In a hexadecimal editor, such as WinHex, you can find the first partition at offset 0x1BE
– The file system’s hexadecimal code is offset 3 bytes from 0x1BE for the first partition

Examining FAT Disks

• File Allocation Table (FAT)
– File structure database that Microsoft originally designed for floppy disks
• FAT database is typically written to a disk’s outermost track and contains:
– Filenames, directory names, date and time stamps, the starting cluster number, and
file attributes
• Three current FAT versions
– FAT16, FAT32, and exFAT (used by Xbox game systems)
• Cluster sizes vary according to the hard disk size and file system

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Fig :Sectors and bytes per duster

• Microsoft OSs allocate disk space for files by clusters – Results in drive slack

• Unused space in a cluster between the end of an active file and the end of the cluster
• Drive slack includes:
– RAM slack and file slack
• An unintentional side effect of FAT16 having large clusters was that it reduced
fragmentation
– As cluster size increased

Fig: File Stack space

• When you run out of room for an allocated cluster

– OS allocates another cluster for your file, which creates more slack space on the disk
• As files grow and require more disk space, assigned clusters are chained together
– The chain can be broken or fragmented
• When the OS stores data in a FAT file system, it assigns a starting cluster position to a file
Data for the file is written to the first sector of the first assigned cluster

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• When this first assigned cluster is filled and runs out of room
– FAT assigns the next available cluster to the file
• If the next available cluster isn’t contiguous to the current cluster
– File becomes fragmented
Deleting FAT Files
• In Microsoft OSs, when a file is deleted
– Directory entry is marked as a deleted file
• With the HEX E5 character replacing the first letter of the filename
• FAT chain for that file is set to 0
• Data in the file remains on the disk drive
• Area of the disk where the deleted file resides becomes unallocated disk space
– Available to receive new data from newly created files or other files needing more
space
NTFS Disks
• NT File System (NTFS)
– Introduced with Windows NT
– Primary file system for Windows 8
• Improvements over FAT file systems
– NTFS provides more information about a file
– NTFS gives more control over files and folders
• NTFS was Microsoft’s move toward a journaling file system
– It records a transaction before the system carries it out
• In NTFS, everything written to the disk is considered a file
• On an NTFS disk
– First data set is the Partition Boot Sector
– Next is Master File Table (MFT)
• NTFS results in much less file slack space
• Clusters are smaller for smaller disk drives

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• NTFS also uses Unicode

– An international data format

Fig: Cluster sizes in an NTFS disk

NTFS System Files
• MFT contains information about all files on the disk
– Including the system files the OS uses
• In the MFT, the first 15 records are reserved for system files
• Records in the MFT are called metadata

Fig: Metedata records in the MFT

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MFT and File Attributes

• In the NTFS MFT
– All files and folders are stored in separate records of 1024 bytes each
• Each record contains file or folder information
– This information is divided into record fields containing metadata
• A record field is referred to as an attribute ID
• File or folder information is typically stored in one of two ways in an MFT record:
– Resident and nonresident
• Files larger than 512 bytes are stored outside the MFT
– MFT record provides cluster addresses where the file is stored on the drive’s
partition
• Referred to as data runs
• Each MFT record starts with a header identifying it as a resident or nonresident attribute
• When a disk is created as an NTFS file structure
– OS assigns logical clusters to the entire disk partition
• These assigned clusters are called logical cluster numbers (LCNs)
– Become the addresses that allow the MFT to link to nonresident files on the disk’s
partition
• When data is first written to nonresident files, an LCN address is assigned to the file
This LCN becomes the file’s virtual cluster number (VCN)
MFT Structures for File Data
• For the header of all MFT records, the record fields of interest are as follows:
– At offset 0x00 - the MFT record identifier FILE
– At offset 0x1C to 0x1F - size of the MFT record
– At offset 0x14 - length of the header (indicates where the next attribute starts)
– At offset 0x32 and 0x33 - the update sequence array, which stores the last 2 bytes
of the first sector of the MFT record

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NTFS Alternate Data Streams

• Alternate data streams
– Ways data can be appended to existing files
Can obscure valuable evidentiary data, intentionally or by coincidence
• In NTFS, an alternate data stream becomes an additional file attribute
– Allows the file to be associated with different applications
• You can only tell whether a file has a data stream attached by examining that file’s MFT
entry

NTFS Compressed Files

• NTFS provides compression similar to FAT DriveSpace 3 (a Windows 98 compression
utility)
• Under NTFS, files, folders, or entire volumes can be compressed
• Most computer forensics tools can uncompress and analyze compressed Windows data
NTFS Encrypting File System (EFS)
• Encrypting File System (EFS)
– Introduced with Windows 2000
Implements a public key and private key method of encrypting files, folders, or
disk volumes
• When EFS is used in Windows 2000 and later
– A recovery certificate is generated and sent to the local Windows administrator
account
• Users can apply EFS to files stored on their local workstations or a remote server
EFS Recovery Key Agent
• Recovery Key Agent implements the recovery certificate
– Which is in the Windows administrator account

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• Windows administrators can recover a key in two ways: through Windows or from an MS-
DOS command prompt
• MS-DOS commands
– cipher
– copy
– efsrecvr (used to decrypt EFS files) Deleting NTFS Files
• When a file is deleted in Windows NT and later
– The OS renames it and moves it to the Recycle Bin
• Can use the Del (delete) MS-DOS command
– Eliminates the file from the MFT listing in the same way FAT does Resilient File
System
• Resilient File System (ReFS) - designed to address very large data storage needs – Such as
the cloud

• Features incorporated into ReFS’s design:

– Maximized data availability
– Improved data integrity
– Designed for scalability
• ReFS uses disk structures similar to the MFT in NTFS
List some options for decrypting drives encrypted with whole disk encryption.
Understanding Whole Disk Encryption
• In recent years, there has been more concern about loss of
Personal identity information (PII) and trade secrets caused by computer theft
• Of particular concern is the theft of laptop computers and other handheld devices
• To help prevent loss of information, software vendors now provide whole disk encryption
• Current whole disk encryption tools offer the following features:
– Preboot authentication
– Full or partial disk encryption with secure hibernation
– Advanced encryption algorithms

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– Key management function

• Whole disk encryption tools encrypt each sector of a drive separately
• Many of these tools encrypt the drive’s boot sector
– To prevent any efforts to bypass the secured drive’s partition
• To examine an encrypted drive, decrypt it first
– Run a vendor-specific program to decrypt the drive
– Many vendors use a bootable CD or USB drive that prompts for a onetime
passphrase
Examining Microsoft BitLocker
• Available Vista Enterprise/Ultimate, Windows 7 and 8 Professional/Enterprise, and Server
08 and 12
• Hardware and software requirements
– A computer capable of running Windows Vista or later
– The TPM microchip, version 1.2 or newer
– A computer BIOS compliant with Trusted Computing Group (TCG)
– Two NTFS partitions
– The BIOS configured so that the hard drive boots first before
checking other bootable peripherals Examining Third-Party Disk Encryption Tools
• Some available third-party WDE utilities:
– PGP Full Disk Encryption
– Voltage SecureFile
– Utimaco SafeGuard Easy
– Jetico BestCrypt Volume Encryption
TrueCrypt
How the Windows Registry works
• Registry
– A database that stores hardware and software configuration information, network
connections, user preferences, and setup information

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• To view the Registry, you can use:

– Regedit (Registry Editor) program for Windows 9x systems
– Regedt32 for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista
– Both utilities can be used for Windows 7 and 8
Exploring the Organization of the Windows Registry
• Registry terminology:
– Registry
– Registry Editor
– HKEY
– Key
– Subkey
– Branch
– Value
– Default value
– Hives

Understanding Microsoft Startup Tasks

• Learn what files are accessed when Windows starts
• This information helps you determine when a suspect’s computer was last accessed
– Important with computers that might have been used after an incident was reported
Startup in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• Windows 8 is a multiplatform OS
– Can run on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones
• The boot process uses a boot configuration data (BCD) store
• The BCD contains the boot loader that initiates the system’s bootstrap process
– Press F8 or F12 when the system starts to access the Advanced Boot Options
Startup in Windows NT and Later
• All NTFS computers perform the following steps when the computer is turned on:
– Power-on self test (POST)

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– Initial startup
– Boot loader
– Hardware detection and configuration
– Kernel loading
– User logon
• Startup Files for Windows Vista:
– The Ntldr program in Windows XP used to load the OS has been replaced with these
three boot utilities:
• Bootmgr.exe
• Winload.exe
• Winresume.exe
– Windows Vista includes the BCD editor for modifying boot options and updating
the BCD registry file
– The BCD store replaces the Windows XP boot.ini file
• Startup Files for Windows XP:
– NT Loader (NTLDR)
– Boot.ini
– Ntoskrnl.exe
– Bootvid.dll
– Hal.dll
– BootSect.dos
– NTDetect.com
– NTBootdd.sys
– Pagefile.sys

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Windows XP System Files

Fig: Windows XP System Files

• Contamination Concerns with Windows XP

– When you start a Windows XP NTFS workstation, several files are accessed
immediately

• The last access date and time stamp for the files change to the current date and time

– Destroys any potential evidence

• That shows when a Windows XP workstation was last used 2.7 Describe MS-DOS startup
tasks
 MS-DOS uses three files when starting, with the same names as in Windows 9x/Me: Io.sys,
Msdos.sys, and Command.com.
 Two other files are then used to configure MS-DOS at startup: Config.sys and
Autoexec.bat.
 Although MS-DOS and Windows 9x use some of the same startup filenames, there are
some important differences between the files in these OSs.
 Io.sys is the first file loaded after the ROM bootstrap loader finds the disk drive. Io.sys
then resides in RAM and provides the basic input and output service for all MS-DOS
functions.
 Msdos.sys is the second program to load into RAM immediately after Io.sys.

 As mentioned, this file is the actual OS kernel, not a text file as in Windows 9x

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and Me.
 After Msdos.sys finishes setting up DOS services, it looks for the Config.sys file to
configure device drivers and other settings.
 Config.sys is a text file containing commands that typically run only at system startup to
enhance the computer’s DOS configuration.
 Msdos.sys then loads Command.com, which contains the same internal DOS commands
in MS-DOS 6.22 as in Windows 9x. As the loading of Command.com nears completion,
Msdos.sys looks for and loads Autoexec.bat, a batch file containing customized settings
for MS-DOS that runs automatically.
 In this batch file, you can define the default path and set environmental variables, such
as temporary directories. MS-DOS then accesses and resets the last access dates and
times on files when powered up.
• Virtual machine
– Allows you to create a representation of another computer on an existing physical
computer .A virtual machine is just a few files on your hard drive
– Must allocate space to it
• A virtual machine recognizes components of the physical machine it’s loaded on
– Virtual OS is limited by the physical machine’s OS .

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