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312-49 · Question #339

You are working as an independent computer forensics investigator and receive a call from a systems administrator for a local school system requesting your assistance. One of the students at the…

The correct answer is A. Bit-stream copy. A bit-stream copy (also called a forensic image or mirror image) performs a sector-by-sector duplication of the entire physical drive, capturing every bit - including deleted files, unallocated space, slack space, and file fragments. A simple backup only copies active…

Submitted by naveen.iyer· Apr 18, 2026Disk Forensics

Question

You are working as an independent computer forensics investigator and receive a call from a systems administrator for a local school system requesting your assistance. One of the students at the local high school is suspected of downloading inappropriate images from the Internet to a PC in the Computer Lab. When you arrive at the school, the systems administrator hands you a hard drive and tells you that he made a implePC in the Computer Lab. When you arrive at the school, the systems administrator hands you a hard drive and tells you that he made a ?imple backup copy?of the hard drive in the PC and put it on this drive and requests that you examine the drive for evidence of the suspected images. You inform him that a imple backup copy?will not provide deleted files or recover file fragments. What type of copy do you need to make toYou inform him that a ?imple backup copy?will not provide deleted files or recover file fragments. What type of copy do you need to make to ensure that the evidence found is complete and admissible in future proceedings?

Options

  • ABit-stream copy
  • BRobust copy
  • CFull backup copy
  • DIncremental backup copy

How the community answered

(41 responses)
  • A
    80% (33)
  • B
    5% (2)
  • C
    5% (2)
  • D
    10% (4)

Explanation

A bit-stream copy (also called a forensic image or mirror image) performs a sector-by-sector duplication of the entire physical drive, capturing every bit - including deleted files, unallocated space, slack space, and file fragments. A simple backup only copies active, allocated files and ignores all deleted or fragmented data, making it forensically insufficient. Only a bit-stream copy preserves the complete evidentiary state of the drive. Tools like dd, FTK Imager, or EnCase are used to create bit-stream copies in real investigations.

Topics

#Data Acquisition#Bit-stream Imaging#Forensic Duplication#Evidence Preservation

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