This method allows law enforcement agencies to send images of hard drives at a faster rate over wide area networks that are limited in bandwidth. In sending hard drive data from a remote site to a central site, unnecessary data common on many computers in the network is stripped from the drive images to save transmission time. At the central site, the stripped-down data (unique data) is recombined with the common data. The result is a forensically sound drive image that law enforcement can use in a timely basis.
Patent Number: 8,538,188
Date Issued: September 17 2013