If you performed physical imaging (in other words, created a disk image), in order to extract the files from the disk images, there are a few tools that we can use. The main tool for extracting disk images is CCA disk processor. The BitCurator Image Access Tool and HFS Explorer are used as backups or when confirming you creating an image correctly. HxC Floppy Emulator is primarily a backup for extracting floppy disk images. If all of these fail, consult with the digital archivist to try other methods.
All of these tools except HxCFloppy Emulator run on BitCurator, a customized Linux operating system, that we run on a virtual machine through Windows. To access do the following steps:
Click on the Oracle Virtual Box shortcut on the Windows desktop screen
Virtual Box will open, click on the BitCurator with the latest version number after it
Wait for the operating system to load. Once you see a screen with a blue background, BitCurator is ready to use.
CCA disk processor
The main tool for extracting disk images is CCA disk proccessor. It is used on all disk images when possible. This will extract the files and you can choose whether you want to retain the disk image or not. It will also create a number of reports that will also be used in surveying the collection.Archivematica is not the best for extracting and analyzing files within a disk image. We also want to know something about the files we are keeping and disk images can be opaque. For those reasons we will do some processing prior to Archivematica. The Processing tab also has the added advantage of creating a package that Archivematica can understand.
Processing tab
- Open the “CCA tools” folder on the BitCurator desktop screen and click the Click the “Disk Processor” icon.
Choose the processing tab.
For the Source, select the folder where disk image(s) are stored.
For Destination create a folder within the folder where the disk image(s) are stored and name it the same as the parent folder. You can then move the folder once the package is created.
- Unless you have additional information to add to the metadata/submissionDocumentation folder, select the bag SIPs option.
- If you believe that you may not end up keeping the disk image, choose the “Make SIPs from carved files only (no disk image) option.
- Do not select the run bulk_extractor option. (This looks for PII and other restrictions, we will do this later with another tool.).
- Click the Start processing button.
- If you did not select the bagging option, add your submissionDocumentation to the metadata/submissionDocumentation folder within the appropriate SIP.
- If you have not already looked at the reports generated (i.e. did not use the analysis tab before), proceed to the Appraisal section for help with appraisal of the items. (link)
- If you have already appraised, proceed to the access restrictions section. (link)
Analysis tab
The actions performed by the analysis tab allows you to analyze your files to better understand what the contents are and for appraisal with the same reports as the Processing tab. In general we do not use the Analysis tab and use the output from the Processing tab for both analysis and extraction (re-running it if necessary).
BitCurator Image Access tool
The BitCurator Image Access tool allows you to open common disk image types, browse their structure, and export the files if desired. This is a back up to CCA tools disk processor (which uses this behind the scenes) or if you want to check to see if disk imaging was successful
- Open the Forensics and Reporting folder on the BitCurator desktop.
- Open the BitCurator Image Access tool.
- Select “add disk image” and choose your disk image file.
- If your disk image was successful you will be able to open up the directory tree created and see if you have extractable files in your disk image.
- You can select a file and choose “export selections” and try to open it.
- If the image is able to mount and you are able to view the file in some way (you might not have the right software to see it correctly) it most like was a successful disk image.
- To export all the files, see the guidance in the BitCurator Quickstart Guide, starting on page 52.
- If you are running this tool to extract the files, go to the CCA tools SIP creator section to run that on the extract files and the disk image (if you want to keep it).
HFS Explorer
Allows you to mount and export files from HFS disks (older Macs) individually. This is a back up to CCA tools disk processor (which uses this behind the scenes) or if you want to check to see if disk imaging was successful. See the documentation the BitCurator Consortium's wiki for how to use the tool. Like BitCurator Image Access, the ability to open the disk image and export a file is sufficient to determine if imaging was successful.
- If you are running this tool to extract the files, go to the CCA tools SIP creator section to run that on the extract files and the disk image (if you want to keep it).
HxC Floppy Emulator
The HxC Floppy Emulator is a tool that allows for opening of floppy disk images, browsing some types, exporting files, and convert disk image formats. It also allows you to visual the tracks of a disk image, to see where the errors/data are. If CCA disk processor has failed or you have .raw disk images that you couldn't extract files from, you can load the raw files and try to extract files created on various DOS systems.
- In Windows, click the HxC Floppy Emulator on the desktop.
- First click load and select the image from its file location.
- Then select disk Browser to view the contents of a DOS formatted disk.
You can then use Ctrl-A to select all the files and click the "Get Files" button to extract the files to your processing folder.
Note
More advanced users may also try the “Track Analyzer” option, which will allow you to look at a graphical representation of the tracks and the disk as well as a hex editor view of the contents. You can select track mode, which will show the individual tracks close up or disk mode, which will show you an overall view of a disk.
- If you are running this tool to extract the files, go to the CCA tools SIP creator section to run that on the extract files and the disk image (if you want to keep it).
1. First click load and select the scp image from its file location.