Iomega Disk Imaging

Iomega Disks

This page covers Iomega disk imaging with the FTK Imager software. Iomega disks are usually imaged with FTK Imager. Use FTK Imager when creating a disk image of a hard drive or removable media.

Before Imaging

Before any media can be imaged it first must have an object record in SPEC.

Verify a tracking card exists on Trello for the associated acquisition being imaged
- Create a card if it does not already exist
See our Preparing for Transfer page for detailed pre-imaging and transfer instructions.

Image disks

Connect the Iomega drive to the FRED’s Tableau Ultrabay. See Using Tableau Write Blockers for instructions.
Start FTK Imager from the FRED’s launch bar and select Create New Image from the application’s file menu.

Select Physical Image and click next.

Select the drive to be imaged from the drop down menu and click finish.

Select E01 form the image type menu and click next.

Type the acquisition ID in the Case number field, the media ID in the Evidence number field, and your name in the Examiner field. Click next.

Using the browse button, select the objects folder in the correct acquisition directory (e.g. Staging/ingest/diskImages/ACQ_1234/ACQ_1234_123456/objects). Enter the SPEC Object ID into the Image Filename field. Ensure that the image fragment size is set to 0 and the compression field is set to 9. Click finish.

Ensure all check boxes are checked and click Start to begin the imaging process.

FTK Imager will approximate the time needed to image the media.

Make sure that the checksums match on the complete screen, if not imaging was not successful.

Tracking

Navigate to the Tracking folder in Google Drive.
Find the spreadsheet for the acquisition that you will be working with.
Copy Tracking_TEMPLATE to create a spreadsheet if one doesn’t exist.
Name the spreadsheet the acquisition ID of the acquisition that you will be working with.
Check the media ID for the disk you are working with (for example, ACQ_1234_123456).
Media IDs follow the naming convention ACQ_acqID_specObjectID.
Enter acqID in the ref_acq_id field.
Enter specObjectID in the object_id field.

ref_acq_id	object_id
1234	123456

Enter item in the type field.
Enter digital carrier in the format_1 field.
Enter Zip disk in the format_2 field.
Enter Zip disk size in the format_3 field. (for example, 100 MB)

type	format_1	format_2	format_3
item	digital carrier	Zip disk	100 MB

Enter failed in the notes.transfer field if imaging fails.

notes.transfer
failed

Enter the filesystem format in the notes.transfer field if that format isn’t recognized by FTK.
Amiga, ProDOS, CPM are formats not recognized in FTK. (Unrecognized formats less likely for Zip)

notes.transfer
Amiga

Enter a note in the notes.transfer field if there were problems with the transfer.

notes.transfer
Imaging repeatedly stopped at 75%.

Enter Y in the removed field if the disk is removed from the collection.

removed
Y

Package Images with package_images.py

The python script package_images.py identifies digital carrier images in an input directory, creates a archival information package, and moves image files into the package. This section describes packaging with package_images.py for floppy and Iomega disks. For detailed information on installation and use see the package_image.py listing in the Working Scripts section of our documentation.

Use package_images.py with the followings steps:

Open Terminal
Enter the following command with the appropriate paths: python3 package_images.py –-acqid (M#### or ACQ_####) -–source path/to/images -–dest path/to/diskImages
Navigate to destination directory to verify packages have been created and image files have been moved

Completing the imaging process

Return media to the collection’s box or move media to the “Small Collections Transferred” box if you are working on a small collection without a box.
Update object record migration status in SPEC. See Updating records in SPEC section on Completing a Transfer page for detailed instructions

The following sections describe imaging and packaging processes no longer regularly used. Consult these sections when working with legacy collections requires understanding previously done work.

Using Digital Archives scripts

Make sure the setup instructions for Digital Archives scripts have been completed before running the scripts in the next section.

Create destination directories

These instructions show you how to create destination directories for a number of consecutive disks. Consider using a one-line command to create directories if the disks you are packaging do not have consecutive MediaID numbers.

On Mac:

Open Terminal.
Navigate to DigArchDiskStation.
Change into diskImages directory.
$ cd /Volumes/DigArchDiskStation/Staging/ingest/diskImages
Create a directory for your collection if it does not exist.
$ mkdir ACQ_acqID
Change into your collection directory.
$ cd ACQ_acqID
Run makesips script to create a consecutive number of submission information packages for material from digital media.

Change to diskImages directory.

$ cd /Volumes/DigArchDiskStation/Staging/ingest/diskImages

Enter mkdir command.
mkdir -p ACQ_acqID/ACQ_acqID_specObjectID/{metadata,objects}

On Windows via WSL:

Open WSL.
If you do not see the Y:\ drive in /mnt or /mnt/y appears to be empty then it must be re-mounted by:
- Changing to the top level directory by entering cd ../
- Entering the command sudo mount drvfs Y: /mnt/y
Change into diskImages directory.
$ cd /mnt/y/Staging/ingest/diskImages
Create a directory for the acquisition if it does not exist.
$ mkdir ACQ_acqID
Change into the acquisition directory.
$ cd ACQ_acqID
Run makesips script to create a consecutive number of submission information packages for material from digital media.

Change to diskImages directory.

$ cd /mnt/y/Staging/ingest/diskImages

Enter mkdir command.
mkdir -p ACQ_acqID/ACQ_acqID_specObjectID/{metadata,objects}

Directory structure

/M2319-0021
- /metadata
- /objects