Navigating Unmountable Media with the Digital Forensics XML File System

Published

May 31, 2018

Author(s)

Alexander J. Nelson, Alexandra Chassanoff, Alexandra Holloway

Abstract

Some computer storage is non-navigable by current general-purpose computers. This could be because of obsolete interface software, or a more specialized storage system lacking widespread support. These storage systems may contain artifacts of great cultural, historical, or technical significance, but implementing compatible interfaces may be beyond available resources. We developed the DFXML File System (DFXMLFS) to enable navigation of arbitrary storage systems that fulfill a minimum feature set of the POSIX file system standard. Our approach advocates for a two-step workflow that separates parsing the storage's file system structures from navigating the storage like a contemporary file system, including file contents. The parse extracts essential file system metadata, serializing to Digital Forensics XML for later consumption as a read-only file system.

Citation

International Journal of Digital Curation

Volume

12

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v12i2.581

Local Download

Keywords

digital storage, content normalization, XML, Digital Forensics XML, FUSE

Citation

Nelson, A. , Chassanoff, A. and Holloway, A. (2018), Navigating Unmountable Media with the Digital Forensics XML File System, International Journal of Digital Curation, [online], https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v12i2.581, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926069 (Accessed October 9, 2025)