Acquiring Disk Image With Dd And Dcfldd

# Acquiring Disk Image with dd and dcfldd

## When to Use
- When you need to create a forensic copy of a suspect drive for investigation
- During incident response when preserving volatile disk evidence before analysis
- When law enforcement or legal proceedings require a verified bit-for-bit copy
- Before performing any destructive analysis on a storage device
- When acquiring images from physical drives, USB devices, or memory cards

## Prerequisites
- Linux-based forensic workstation (SIFT, Kali, or any Linux distro)
- `dd` (pre-installed on all Linux systems) or `dcfldd` (enhanced forensic version)
- Write-blocker hardware or software write-blocking configured
- Destination drive with sufficient storage (larger than source)
- Root/sudo privileges on the forensic workstation
- SHA-256 or MD5 hashing utilities (`sha256sum`, `md5sum`)

## Workflow

### Step 1: Identify the Target Device and Enable Write Protection

```bash
# List all connected block devices to identify the target
lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT,MODEL

# Verify the device details
fdisk -l /dev/sdb

# Enable software write-blocking (if no hardware blocker)
blockdev --setro /dev/sdb

# Verify read-only status
blockdev --getro /dev/sdb
# Output: 1 (means read-only is enabled)

# Alternatively, use udev rules for persistent write-blocking
echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="block", ATTRS{serial}=="WD-WCAV5H861234", ATTR{ro}="1"' > /etc/udev/rules.d/99-writeblock.rules
udevadm control --reload-rules
```

### Step 2: Prepare the Destination and Document the Source

```bash
# Create case directory structure
mkdir -p /cases/case-2024-001/{images,hashes,logs,notes}

# Document source drive information
hdparm -I /dev/sdb > /cases/case-2024-001/notes/source_drive_info.txt

# Record the serial number and model