Customer comments on this selection.
 CD/DVD Inspector Manual/ with valuable information about CD/DVD forensics
This book provides vital information about hidden data found on CD and DVD Forensics (I am unaware of any other competing book on this topic). My biggest issue with this book is that CD/DVD Inspector Tool costs over 500 dollars (law enforcement receives a discount) -- the book claims to offer a demo version from the website -- after going to the website-- it appears that you must specifically request a demo copy from the company. There is an alternative product called ISObuster which is mentioned in the book which performs many of the functions the CD/DVD Inspector tool discussed in the book. Given the cost of the book, I would have desired a more balanced analysis of other tools avaliable, in addition, to the CD/DVD Inspector Tool. After reviewing the book and supplemental information online about CD/DVD formats much of the functionality is avaliable through less expensive tools on Windows or using regular command line tools typically included in most Linux distributions. I recommend the book primarily because there seems to be a lack of alternative resources discussing this highly specialized topic.
 Great Primer
Crime scene forensics has captured the attention of nearly everyone, thanks primarily to the CSI television franchise shows. Fans tune in every week, to all three series, to find out whodunit and, more importantly, how the detectives are going to catch the bad guys. Forensics investigations have progressed past the point of simply blood, hair, and fibers. The television shows routinely show evidence being recovered from digital media that the perpetrators had thought were erased or destroyed. I enjoy the shows, but a lot of what they do with electronic media has seemed like magic. I became a doubter in that kind of recovery technology.
Paul Crowley and Dave Kleiman's new book CD AND DVD FORENSICS addresses such electronic magic. They formed a company that specializes in recovery of lost or intentionally disrupted data. With their technique and program, they can virtually look into a disc and find out not only what has on it now, but also know what has ever been on it.
We live in an era with rewritable data, and many people mistakenly believe that once they erase something from their computer or put it into the trash bin on their desktop, it's gone. Even if they delete the file from the computer, the information is not gone. With the advent of the police shows, the general public has learned that files are not erased. They get overwritten, which is vastly different. Overwritten means that parts of that file still exist on a hard drive or a flash drive. Of course, the educated criminal can install a program that will overwrite the whole drive.
CDs and DVDs are the same way. Computers burn images onto the disc surface. Some of the discs are rewritable, but they feature the same logistical programming as hard drives. Information that was previously stored on the disc is merely written over, not erased. Even though a disc has been damaged, or even thought destroyed, information can be recovered from them.
Crowley and Kleiman begin their book with a thorough discussion of what the CD and DVD media are. They explain the makeup and architecture of those discs from the ground up in terms that a generalist can understand. People who are already skilled in knowing CD and DVD composition can probably skip over this section, but I had a very vague idea of how the discs were made and archived. I found the technology fascinating, and again was overwhelmed by how much science and invention we seem to take for granted on a day-to-day basis.
Once a general understanding is achieved, the authors move on into the recovery procedures. They talk about their application, CD/DVD Inspector, and explain at length about how to use the software when recovering information.
The book is well laid out. There are plenty of margins for taking notes and for highlighting the text. Too often technical manuals have a habit of being densely printed and provide no areas in which to work. They're also hard to read.
The authors use down-to-earth language and provide plenty of illustrations to make their methodology and procedure clear. The book is extremely user-friendly and laid out so that someone who uses this technology often can easily reference the material.
As a writer, I often find myself researching many subjects. Sciences, technologies, histories, and geographies are all part of the usual retinue I have to wade through in order to create a novel. Many of the books that I use are not as generous as this one. This is one of those reference manuals I will keep near my desk.
For fiction purposes, I would have liked more information on how the evidence recovered from the discs was presented in court. How does a recovery expert persuade a jury that he knows what he's doing? How can he provide a jury a short lesson that will bring them up to speed on the technology being shown? Of course, the authors didn't write this book to provide that kind of slant with their material. But I can see that law enforcement personnel or private security agencies would want additional training in those fields as well.
CD AND DVD FORENSICS is an excellent book for the layman. Even though I doubt I will ever use the software application, it's still nice to know that I can recreate it in a fictional setting and have it right.
CD and DVD Forensics
Review of CD and DVD Forensics by Paul Crowley
An extremely technical , well written book covering all aspects of CDs and DVDs. From the opening paragraph you know that you should be a Medical Examiner to truly understand all of the ramifications of these types of storage media.
In depth coverage of the media itself, is followed by the file structure on CD and DVD media as well as potential problems you can encounter using the forensic recovery processes. Software is described that can be of assistance, types of drives, cleaning products and handling techniques, are covered in detail.
Use of the primary recovery software is covered in extreme detail over nearly 100 pages. If you are truly serious about file recovery, in a most professional manner and varied circumstances, get the book and follow the step by step processes described. This book is not meant for a casual read about CDs and DVDs.
 Only worth buying if you use or want to learn the CD/DVD Inspector application
I am sure if you wish to learn CD/DVD Inspector, or use it regularly, this book is one to buy. I have also heard that this book is used as a text in a CD DVD course being offered. However, if this is not what you are doing, then I would suggest that you look elsewhere, as this is not a well rounded introduction to the field nor the output of a study. To me the CD and DVD Forensics text read more like the 'missing manual' for the application than truly useful information. I guess I was a little disappointed with this, as I don't believe the title nor the blurb conveyed the extent of the product tie in.
Physically, the book is printed on low quality paper and is quite thin, the font size used is huge and approximately 1/5 of the book is made up of the glossary and the table of contents. The photographs and images used are also of a low quality, which is a shame.
However, I will keep this book on hand because it does have some interesting information within it, and in case I ever need to use the CD/DVD Inspector application. Certainly not a well-rounded book though.
Some info on these media formats, but basically a manual for software
I got a review copy of CD and DVD forensics in the mail a couple of weeks ago, and immediately two thoughts came to mind. First, I honestly didn't ever think about these media types in a forensic examination, and so it was a bit unexpected to see a book on them. The author, Paul Crowley, does a good job of explaining why these media types are important to the forensic examiner. Secondly, I began to wonder if it would compare favorably to Brian Carrier's excellent "Filesystem Forensic Analysis". Crowley's book doesn't, but given that Carrier has set such a high bar, it's not surprising.
Chapter 1 dives right into it, covering a lot of CDROM and DVD disc physical attributes and some common layout features. Chapter 2 is a similarly thorough treatment of the logical layout and describes a lot of the fliesystems commonly found in optical media. In this chapter some additional images and illustrations would have helped.
Chapter 3 is surprisingly short, and it introduces binary forensic images. There's little treatment, if any, given to how to collect them. I'm not clear why this chapter was so short or even standalone. Chapter 4 is a bit longer, but also quite short. It covers collecting CD and DVD evidence. There are some useful tips and insights in this chapter, but again it's so short. Chapter 5, "Preparing for disc examination" is a bit longer again, and contains some useful information. There's some useful information here, and some more in depth treatment would have been appreciated.
Chapter 6 starts the real meat of the book, the CD/DVD Inspector manual. This is a lengthy chapter with good illustrations, organization, and a full treatment of the specific messages given by the software. A pretty standard overview of the software package, specific to it as well.
Chapter 7 is, sadly, a short chapter on using CD/DVD Inspector. I say this is sad because a more thorough treatment with insights and exercises would have been valuable. As it stands it's basically tossing you in the deep end. Chapter 8, "Advanced tasks with CD/DVD Inspector", is quite similar. Again, a longer, fuller treatment of the tasks would have been great.
Chapters 9 and 10 are real letdowns because they treat such important material ("Reporting your findings" and "Things to keep in mind", respectively) so cursorily. Just a few pages apiece (Chapter 10 is all of one page!). Real insights would have been valuable here.
Appendix A is useful and covers "Disk swap modifications", and finally a lengthy glossary rounds out the book.
While the material is presented clearly (both the text and the illustrations), it's not presented completely in most chapters. This feels like an exercise without much value beyond being a manual for the software and some introductions and overviews of CD and DVD filesystems. All in all this book should go back to the author for a full fleshing out. I give it three stars on the basis of its strengths, but I think it's more of a 2.5 star book overall.
If you're looking for forensics material, this may wind up on your bookshelf, but see if you can get this book at a steep discount. It's incomplete for the novice or student and focuses specifically on one software package. I hope that any future editions are more complete.
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