Disk image

"CD image" redirects here. For ISO 9660 image files, see ISO image.

A disk image is a snapshot of a storage device's structure and data typically stored in one or more computer files on another storage device.[1][2]

Traditionally, disk images were bit-by-bit copies of every sector on a hard disk often created for digital forensic purposes, but it is now common to only copy allocated data to reduce storage space.[3][4] Compression and deduplication are commonly used to reduce the size of the image file set.[3][5]

Disk imaging is done for a variety of purposes including digital forensics,[6][2] cloud computing,[7] system administration,[8] as part of a backup strategy,[1] and legacy emulation as part of a digital preservation strategy.[9] Disk images can be made in a variety of formats depending on the purpose. Virtual disk images (such as VHD and VMDK) are intended to be used for cloud computing,[10][11] ISO images are intended to emulate optical media[12] and raw disk images are used for forensic purposes.[2] Proprietary formats are typically used by disk imaging software.

Despite the benefits of disk imaging the storage costs can be high,[3] management can be difficult[6] and they can be time consuming to create.[13][9]

  1. ^ a b Colloton, Eddy; Farbowitz, Jonathan; Rodríguez, Caroline Gil (2022-11-02). "Disk Imaging as a Backup Tool for Digital Objects". Conservation of Time-Based Media Art. pp. 204–222. doi:10.4324/9781003034865-17. ISBN 9781003034865.
  2. ^ a b c Woods, Kam; Lee, Christopher A.; Garfinkel, Simson (2011-06-13). Extending digital repository architectures to support disk image preservation and access. Proceedings of the 11th Annual International ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 57–66. doi:10.1145/1998076.1998088. hdl:10945/44252. ISBN 978-1-4503-0744-4. S2CID 2628912.
  3. ^ a b c Pullakandam, R.; Lin, X.; Hibler, M.; Eide, E.; Ricci, R. (October 23–26, 2011). High-performance Disk Imaging With Deduplicated Storage (PDF). 23rd ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles. Cascais, Portugal.
  4. ^ Kävrestad, Joakim (2017), Kävrestad, Joakim (ed.), "Vocabulary", Guide to Digital Forensics: A Concise and Practical Introduction, SpringerBriefs in Computer Science, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 125–126, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-67450-6_12, ISBN 978-3-319-67450-6, retrieved 2023-01-12
  5. ^ Lee, Sang Su; Kyong, Un Sung; Hong, Do Won (2008). A high speed disk imaging system. 2008 IEEE International Symposium on Consumer Electronics. pp. 1–3. doi:10.1109/ISCE.2008.4559553. S2CID 5932241.
  6. ^ a b Garfinkel, Simson L. (2009). Automating Disk Forensic Processing with SleuthKit, XML and Python. 2009 Fourth International IEEE Workshop on Systematic Approaches to Digital Forensic Engineering. pp. 73–84. doi:10.1109/SADFE.2009.12. hdl:10945/44249. ISBN 978-0-7695-3792-4. S2CID 1624033.
  7. ^ Kazim, Muhammad; Masood, Rahat; Shibli, Muhammad Awais (2013-11-26). Securing the virtual machine images in cloud computing. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Security of Information and Networks. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 425–428. doi:10.1145/2523514.2523576. ISBN 978-1-4503-2498-4. S2CID 2474546.
  8. ^ Blackham, N.; Higby, C.; Bailey, M. (June 2004). Re-Imaging Computers For Multipurpose Labs. 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference. Salt Lake City, Utah. doi:10.18260/1-2--14125.
  9. ^ a b Day, Michael; Pennock, Maureen; May, Peter; Davies, Kevin; Whibley, Simon; Kimura, Akiko; Halvarsson, Edith (2016). "The preservation of disk-based content at the British Library: Lessons from the Flashback project". Alexandria: The Journal of National and International Library and Information Issues. 26 (3): 216–234. doi:10.1177/0955749016669775. ISSN 0955-7490. S2CID 63617004.
  10. ^ Arunkumar, G.; Venkataraman., Neelanarayanan (2015-01-01). "A Novel Approach to Address Interoperability Concern in Cloud Computing". Procedia Computer Science. Big Data, Cloud and Computing Challenges. 50: 554–559. doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.04.083. ISSN 1877-0509.
  11. ^ Barrowclough, John Patrick; Asif, Rameez (2018-06-11). "Securing Cloud Hypervisors: A Survey of the Threats, Vulnerabilities, and Countermeasures". Security and Communication Networks. 2018: e1681908. doi:10.1155/2018/1681908. ISSN 1939-0114.
  12. ^ Colloton, E.; Farbowitz, J.; Fortunato, F.; Gil, C. (2019). "Towards Best Practices In Disk Imaging: A Cross-Institutional Approach". Electronic Media Review. 6.
  13. ^ Stewart, Dawid; Arvidsson, Alex (2022). Need for speed : A study of the speed of forensic disk imaging tools.