For my cases, I use the year + case number + lot number + item number
ex item 2 in lot B in case 21034 in 2010 will be 1021034B-2
When I have more than one item, I add USB1 or HDD1 at the end
For me - Have a list of numbers, call them bar code numbers (BCN).
Assign a BCN to each top level system (computer, phone, usb drive, whatever) then write it down as S999123 (S for system).
Then assign a separate BCN to each piece of digital media contained by that system, like multiple HDs in a computer. Then list them as
S999123_H999124
S999123_H999125
S999123_C999126
S999123_D999127
H is hard drive, C is CD, D is DVD, U could be USB, etc etc.
The advantage to this is that you can see where each image came from at a glance. Feel free to add a case number at the beginning.
Mark
Our exhibits come to us with an exhibit reference already on them. This is the initials of the individual who seized the exhibit in question followed by a slash and then a number. So if Fred Bloggs seized a laptop this would be FB/1, the next exhibit he seized would be FB/2, etc.
We have a database that automatically generates a case reference based on <nnnn>/<yy>. <nnnn> being a number that is incremented when a new case is added to the database, for example 5555, and <yy> being the last two digits of the year, in this case 10.
So the exhibit would then become 5555/10/FB/1.
If we then happen to remove a hard disk drive from exhibit FB/1 this will become FB/1/1 and the exhibit would therefore be referred to as 5555/10/FB/1/1.
Where multiple exhibits are seized as one, say an exhibit FB/10 containing 5 SD cards, these would be split when the analyst opened the exhibit bag and added to our database as FB/1/1, FB/1/2, etc.
We tried using references like HD for hard drive, CD for CD, DVD for DVD, etc. but ultimately found that sticking to numbers made things a lot easier.
When creating an exhibit, we always use
[ExaminerInitials]/[JobNo]/[ExhibitIndex]
so the first three exhibits pertaining to case 123, seized by myself would be
JB/123/1
JB/123/2
JB/123/3
and so on…