Computer System Storage Fundamentals
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profileHacking / Incident Response & Computer Forensics / Prosise & Mandia / 222696-x / Chapter 10 Composite Default screen CHAPTER 10 Computer System Storage Fundamentals 217 P:\010Comp\Hacking\696-x\ch10.vp Friday, June 27, 2003 12:03:27 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profileHacking / Incident Response & Computer Forensics / Prosise & Mandia / 222696-x / Chapter 10 Composite Default screen 218 Incident Response & Computer Forensics efore you can dive head first into exciting investigations involving computer intru- sions from foreign countries, international money-laundering schemes, foreign Bstate-sponsored agents, or who posted your purity test score to Usenet, you need to have a solid understanding of basic computer hardware, software, and operating sys- tems. In this chapter, we focus on system storage—hard drives and the file systems on those drives. If you can answer the following three questions, skip ahead to Chapter 11. ▼ What is the 32GB barrier? ■ What are the differences between SCSI P and SCSI A cables? ▲ How do you format a FAT32 partition under Linux? This chapter begins with an overview of the various hard drive interface standards and how they affect your forensic duplications (including how to avoid the destruction of expensive SCSI hardware). Then it covers how to prepare hard drive media for use during your investigation. The final section introduces the principles and organization of data storage. HARD DRIVES AND INTERFACES There are few situations more frustrating than preparing to run a few quick searches on your forensic duplicate, but running into technical difficulties at every step of the way. Understanding the hardware and the set of standards to which the system was built will significantly cut down the number of branches in your troubleshooting matrix. In this section, we are going to quickly cover the basics of hard drive interface for- mats. The term interface is a bit of a misnomer here. We are compressing the concepts of interfaces, standards, and protocols into one section in an effort to simplify the discus- sion. (For more details on hard drives and other computer hardware, refer to a book on that subject, such as Scott Meuller’s Upgrading and Repairing PCs, published by Que.) IDE/ATA (Integrated Drive Electronics/AT Attachment) and SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) are the two interface standards that most computer forensic analysts will encounter. IDE drives are cheap, simple to acquire, and have a respectable transfer rate. SCSI drives move data faster than IDE/ATA drives, but at a much higher cost. The Swiftly Moving ATA Standard The ATA interface started out as a fairly simple standard. ATA-1 was designed with a single data channel that could support two hard drives, one jumpered as master and the other as slave. This standard supported programmed I/O (PIO) modes 0 through 2, yielding a maxi- mum transfer rate of 8.3MB/second. The next big improvement came with the adoption of direct memory access (DMA) usage. Using the DMA method allowed the computer to transfer data without spending precious CPU cycles. A short amount of time went by, and the speed increases (up to 16MB/second) became insufficient. The standard evolved into a higher-speed version known as Ultra-DMA. P:\010Comp\Hacking\696-x\ch10.vp Friday, June 20, 2003 3:52:07 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profileHacking / Incident Response & Computer Forensics / Prosise & Mandia / 222696-x / Chapter 10 Composite Default screen Chapter 10: Computer System Storage Fundamentals 219 The current iteration is Ultra-DMA mode 5, which boasts a maximum transfer rate of 100MB/second. The previous three modes transferred data at MB/second rates of 66, 44, and 33, giving us the explanation behind the labels printed on hard drive packages: ATA/33, ATA/44, ATA/66, or ATA/100. (ATA/44 caught on for only a short time; we have yet to encounter these drives, but they allegedly exist.) An important fact for foren- sic analysts in the field is that the IDE/ATA modes are backward-compatible. Drive Size Boundaries Along with the rate of data transfer, the growing size of drive media is also a concern for the T13 committee (the group that releases ATA standards). At the time of this writing, Western Digital sells 200GB hard drives. Unfortunately, the ATA controllers on the mar- ket are not able to handle anything over 137GB. Drive manufacturers are packaging ATA interface cards that are built upon draft specifications (UDMA Mode 6). When the T13 committee ratifies the updated standard, these ATA interfaces will replace the current versions built onto motherboards and PCI cards. This works fine in an office or labora- tory environment, but you may be out of luck when acquiring images on systems that are not under your control. The current ATA interface standard uses 28-bit addressing, which tops out at approximately 137.4GB. Furthermore, operating system utilities such as Microsoft’s Scandisk and Disk Defragmenter do not currently operate properly on drives over 137GB, even if the ATA controller card is updated. Previous drive media size boundaries have been at 32GB, 8.4GB, and 2.1GB. Time will sort these problems out, but it serves as a warning to labs that attempt to purchase cutting- edge hardware. Drive Cabling How do the ATA standards apply to forensic duplication? One of the goals of efficient duplication is to get the maximum amount of data safely transferred in the least amount of time. Proper cabling plays an important role in achieving these goals. The following sections discuss a few key points regarding the cabling for your evidence media. Cable Requirements Up until the ATA/33 standard, a 40-conductor/40-pin cable was sufficient. Figure 10-1 shows a 40-conductor/40-pin ribbon cable. Anything faster than ATA/33 requires an 80-conductor/40-pin cable, such as the one shown in Figure 10-2. This newer cable has several attributes that correct problems with the old version. First, the presence of 40 more conductors minimizes the amount of inter- ference and crosstalk between the 40 active wires. The extra 40 conductors are tied to the ground pin on the connector to act as a drain for any excessive current. Second, the con- nectors are color-coded as blue, gray, and black. Each one has a specific role: ▼ The blue connector attaches to the host controller on the motherboard or PCI card. ■ The gray connector is in the middle of the cable and connects to the slave device, if present. ▲ The black connector must be attached to the master drive. If you have only one drive on the chain, it goes on the black connector. P:\010Comp\Hacking\696-x\ch10.vp Friday, June 20, 2003 3:52:07 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profileHacking / Incident Response & Computer Forensics / Prosise & Mandia / 222696-x / Chapter 10 Composite Default screen 220 Incident Response & Computer Forensics Figure 10-1. A 40-conductor/40-pin cable, sufficient only for ATA/33 and slower Grey Black Blue Figure 10-2. An 80-conductor/40-pin cable, required for ATA/44 and faster P:\010Comp\Hacking\696-x\ch10.vp Friday, June 20, 2003 3:52:08 PM Color profile: Generic CMYK printer profileHacking / Incident Response & Computer Forensics / Prosise & Mandia / 222696-x / Chapter 10 Composite Default screen Chapter 10: Computer System Storage Fundamentals 221 If you ignore these color codes, you may have problems with the BIOS not recogniz- ing a hard drive, or worse, data corruption. Placing a single drive on the middle connec- tor leaves a pigtail of unterminated wire that will result in reflected signals and degradation in signal quality. Mixed Hard Drive Types You can place drives with different ratings on the same cable. If you are using an ATA/100 host controller and have ATA/33 and ATA/100 hard drives connected via an 80-conductor cable, each drive will perform at its rated speed. And if you have an ATA/33 host controller with ATA/33 and ATA/100 hard drives, the fastest transfer speed you could attain would be approximately 33MB/second. Mixed Cable Types Mixing cable types is a proven way to cause problems. If you must daisy-chain IDE cables (not exceeding the 18-inch limit), ensure that both cables are of the identical type. The ATA host controller will detect the type of cable connected to each bus by checking the PDIAG-CBLID signal on pin 34. (The PDIAG-CBLID pin is the Passed Diagnostics-Cable Assembly Type Identifier, just so you know if it ever comes up in a future Jeopardy show.) If pin 34 is tied to ground, the controller knows that an 80-conductor cable is attached. Incidentally, this is also why it is important to make sure that the blue connector is mated with the host controller, because this is where the pin is grounded. You may be wondering when the problem of mixed cable types may arise. Until re- cently, companies that assemble computer systems for forensic use have had a hard time finding a source for an 80-conductor version of the short “extension cable” that allowed them to place a male IDE connector on the back of the computer system. We observed several situations where an 80-conductor cable was mated to the backplane, causing the host controller to go into ATA/100 mode. Because of the lack of shielding on the 40-con- ductor cable inside the computer, the BIOS had intermittent problems identifying exter- nal drives. Figure 10-3 illustrates this condition. Cable Select Mode If you are a fan of the cable select mode capability, you finally have something to cheer about.