MiniVAN - data survey app

Tonight I field tested an app designed to collect data from multiple places or people. It’s called MiniVAN.  I used it to collect data from potential voters while canvassing for a candidate but it can easily be used for a variety of purposes.   It can be downloaded from the iOS App Store here.

The app keeps track of multiple locations and associates a form with each one.    (Unfortunately the map pinpointing the locations gets cut off.)  It does however tag addresses which a letter code,letting you see at a glance the places that are trending in a particular area of concern. 

The user gets a chart summarizing his own collected data (what percentage of targets are coded issue A as opposed to B, C, or D) and of course the data is fed back to the main CAN database in realtime. 

FTK Imager - Copying Protected Registry Files

There is a file in Windows 7 at C:\Users\[username] named NTUSER.DAT. This is a registry hive. A new hive is created for each user that logs in. The hives contain information about a user's application settings, network connections, printers, and environment settings. This is a very useful file to have when you're imaging a user's laptop or desktop. However registry files like this one cannot be copied with Windows Explorer. If you try, you'll get an error message like this one:

FTK Imager can be used to copy this files. On the toolbar, click on the yellow safe icon. A new dialog box will appear prompting the user to 'Obtain System Files'. If you select the option for 'Password recovery and all registry files', and select a folder to copy the files to, the NTUSER.DAT file will be copied with other registry files to the new destination.

Evidence Mover

Download the free utility available on the Nuix site, Evidence Mover, which will allow you to securely copy files from one location to another. The utility generates hash values for both the source and copied files in order to confirm that the collected evidence is complete. Data transfers will be re-executed until the matching MD5 hash values have been confirmed.

Note the option in this screen grab to perform 'Recursive' copying. When this option is selected both the source folder and any subfolders inside it will be copied as well.

Evidence Mover also generates a log file noting the hash values of the files and providing confirmation that there were found to match.

The modified and created times of the files are also preserved.