Hello,
I was in a class and heard someone reffering to a USB Disk Drive Catty. Understand what this is, (a hardware device that hooks up to a disk drive and you can plug the other end of this device into your forensices computer via USB.) My question is what is it really called? If I wanted to google to find a one to buy, what is it really that I am looking for?
I guess my question is, what is the hardware device used to forensically copy an unattached hard drive to a forensics system for analysis. Pretending that I don't have another computer to hook up the seperate hard drive.
Thanks,
Mark
Errrm, I think you might have misheard. What you're probably looking for is a caddy, not a catty. This isn't particularly specific to forensics though and is just a method for connecting a hard disk drive to a computer for storage.
What you'd want is a write-blocking device or something along the lines of the hard disk cloning units produced by Logicube, ICS,….etc to forensically copy the drive.
Thanks for the information. One more qucik question if you dont mind. Have you come across any for single hard disk drives that are pretty good priced? What would be an average price for a single USB hard drive caddy?
I would be using this for copying one drive at a time from just the drive it self to a forensics system.
Thanks,
Mark
I've paid between US$25 and US$50 for dual USB/Firewire cases. Write blockers would normally be used for the duplication of an unattached hard drive. There is a nice variety of devices for this as well, although these run quite a bit more.
Hello,
I have done some searching and can't seem to identify what I am looking for. I have looked at disk duplicators and they seem way to expensive for what I am looking for. In a basic hard drive caddy to "dd" data from one external hard drive through USB or cat5 to a live system for performing data recovery on. I assume that you would need one for IDE and one for SCSI. I am looking for something cheap around 30.00 US. I have called a few companies that I have found products online and they are giving me conflicting information.
Any brand name or website would be helpful.
Thanks,
mark
Oh, one last thing. I also see that many of these hard drive caddy's are made by computer vendors such as compact or dell, or HP. Does that mean that if I buy the dell that it is only compatable with dell components?
Also seems like most are for laptops. I am guessing that is b/c its for external hard drives for laptops.
Thanks,
mark
Plenty of generic ones out there. Remember in that price range you will not get a write blocker.
Internal bay model.
External model
Just one of many write blockers available.
Hi Mwade,
Is this for computer forensic work that you are doing?
Yes, I am new to the industry and am working on learning how to forensically recover data. I am doing this on my own, so I am working with a home lab setup.
mark
Geeks.com has them as external drive enclosures, newegg as External Enclosures. I always buy firewire compatible as well in addition to USB. Prices start at $15 so the hard drive is the more costly component. They are pretty universal in that they should work with any system. I've connected them to *NIX systems as well as Windows later then Many Errors (ME) with few problems. Most, but not all use IDE but SATA are available so if you already have a hard drive, double check the enclosure will work with what you are using.
I personally prefer those models that have a built in fan. My best one is aluminum but I've used a plastic one with my students and haven't had any problems.
This is not a bad approach for you to practice with. I always have my students image to an external device.