Hard Drive Data Retrieval

Martin Brinkmann
Jan 7, 2009
Updated • Dec 9, 2014
Data recovery, Security, Windows software
|
12

Update: Disk Investigator has not been updated in recent time. It is only compatible with XP and previous versions of Windows and not usable on later versions of the operating system. A program like OS Forensics may provide you with similar information on newer versions of Windows.

Disk Investigator is a pretty unique hard drive data retrieval tool that takes a totally different approach than the usual hard drive data recovery tools.

Disk Investigator provides direct access to the raw data sectors of a selected hard drive so that the hard drive's data can be explored up to the last bit.

The user can perform a sector to sector analysis of the hard drive, display raw file contents or perform a search on the selected hard drive or partition to find information of interest.

While the disk view may be interesting, the directories view is what resembles file recovery software the most.Disk View displays the hard drive data sectors while the Directories View the underlying file structure of the drive or partition.
A click on a file will open a raw file data viewer in a separate browser

This means that you have two options to find files on the hard disk. The first searches the raw information on the disk which can be useful, the second the actual file structure of the drive including deleted files.

So what will you find when your run a search or analyze the data on the hard drive? You will be able to discover opened urls, passwords, email contents, document contents and more.

The easiest way to discover the data is by running a search. You may be surprised by the amount of information that can be discovered when running Disk Investigator.

data retrieval

Another possible use for this software is to make sure that a disk wipe was successful. The software program works with most versions of the Windows operating system including Windows XP but with the exception of Windows Vista.

Summary
software image
Author Rating
1star1star1star1stargray
no rating based on 0 votes
Software Name
Disk Investigator
Operating System
Windows
Landing Page
Advertisement

Tutorials & Tips


Previous Post: «
Next Post: «

Comments

  1. IT Outsourcing Philippines said on July 26, 2009 at 12:26 pm
    Reply

    thanks for this post

  2. Martin said on January 12, 2009 at 11:37 pm
    Reply

    Ever heard of false positives?

  3. bmnrocks said on January 12, 2009 at 10:29 pm
    Reply

    This download has a virus, you might want to remove it.

  4. yakman said on January 12, 2009 at 6:38 pm
    Reply

    download appears to contain the trojan.banker.140 trojan virus…

  5. David Bradley said on January 7, 2009 at 7:11 pm
    Reply

    I used to have a DOS program way back in the early 1990s that did something similar…I presume the Feds have all kinds of tools like this for unearthing evil masterplans to take over the universe that were “deleted” just before the raid…

  6. jg said on January 7, 2009 at 5:13 pm
    Reply

    Cool…so is this basically a (much needed) resurrection of the Apple IIe era “nibble copiers”?

Leave a Reply

Check the box to consent to your data being stored in line with the guidelines set out in our privacy policy

We love comments and welcome thoughtful and civilized discussion. Rudeness and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Please stay on-topic.
Please note that your comment may not appear immediately after you post it.