Contacts.EDB corrup...
 
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Contacts.EDB corrupted & ESENTUTIL

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(@thepm)
Reputable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 254
Topic starter  

We are seeing more and more occurrences of corrupted (windows Live Messenger) Contacts.edb file that EseDbViewer or LiveContactsView cannot open.

I've read that a Microsoft tool, ESENTUTIL could be able to repair those corrupted (dirty) files and make them viewable. However, I could not find any documentation on what the tool actually does to "repair" the files. On a forensic standpoint, I'm not sure I would be ready to testify about an EDB file that has been modified in a way that I can't explain. U

Unfortunately, magic is not yet recognized as a forensic technique yet… )

So, I would like to know if you guys actually use the ESENTUTIL tool?

Does anyone know in more details what it actually does to the edb file? Does it change the metadata or the actual data of the file?


   
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 tg92
(@tg92)
Active Member
Joined: 15 years ago
Posts: 13
 

Hi,

hope that can help

Link

Link

I did not test but I've found this command too

esentutl /p ".\contacts.edb" /o

Thierry


   
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harryparsonage
(@harryparsonage)
Estimable Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 184
 

Pierre-Marc

I am travelling at present but if you send me an email to remind me I will send you a document that I have when I get home Monday.

H


   
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(@joachimm)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 181
 

You can also try
http//sourceforge.net/projects/libesedb/

It ignores the dirty state and just tries to read the database.


   
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(@thepm)
Reputable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 254
Topic starter  

Pierre-Marc

I am travelling at present but if you send me an email to remind me I will send you a document that I have when I get home Monday.

H

H,

Thx. However, I'm startin a 2 week vacation, so I won't be able to send you an email on monday. I'll send it when I get back.

@joachimm thanks, I'll look into it when I get back.


   
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