- #System restore is disabled by your system administrator password
- #System restore is disabled by your system administrator Offline
- #System restore is disabled by your system administrator windows
I have also seen that neither the storage component of my Motorola MB300 BackFlip smartphone nor a Garmin Nuvi (both the SD card and the flash device) will have a ParentIdPrefix value populated beneath the unique instance ID key. Specifically, thumb drives contain a value within their unique instance ID key called the ParentIdPrefix external drives do not contain this value.
#System restore is disabled by your system administrator windows
Later, I disconnect the device, and then at some point connect another device, which is also mounted as the F:\ drive.īefore continuing, we need to understand that Windows treats external USB drives (hard drives in enclosures, such as “wallet” drives) and thumb drives or USB keys differently. For example, I've connected a thumb drive to my system that has been mounted as the drive letter F:\. This may not always be possible, particularly, if multiple devices had been successively connected to the system. Once we have information about the USB devices attached to the system, we can attempt to map that device to a drive letter. Harlan Carvey, in Windows Registry Forensics, 2011 Mapping Devices to Drive Letters It should be noted that within this key, values that end in “\” indicate that subkeys and values for the listed key will not be restored, while values that end in “\*” indicate that subkeys and values for the listed key will not be restored from backup, but new values will be included from the backup. Finally, the KeysNotToRestore key contains lists of subkeys and values that should not be restored. The FilesNotToSnapshot key contains a list of files that should be deleted from newly created shadow copies.
#System restore is disabled by your system administrator Offline
On a default Windows 7 installation, this list includes temporary files (as in those in the “%TEMP%” directory), the pagefile, hibernation file (if one exists), the Offline Files Cache, Internet Explorer “index.dat” files, as well as number of log file directories. The names should be pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, the FilesNotToBackup key contains a list of files and directories that (according to Microsoft additional information is available at (v=vs.85).aspx) backup applications should not backup and restore. HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestoreīeneath this key are three subkeys: FilesNotToBackup, FilesNotToSnapshot, and KeysNotToRestore. There’s another key within the System hive that affects VSC behavior: Also, forensic analysts examining Vista and Windows 7 systems that do not appear to have any VSCs available should check this key to see if the service had been disabled prior to the system being acquired. As such, care should be taken in disabling this service on production systems. However, it is important to understand that disabling the VSS may affect other applications aside from just disabling VSCs, such as Windows Backup. HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS As this is a Windows service, the primary key of interest is: Registry KeysĪs you’d expect, there are several Registry keys that have a direct impact on the performance of the VSS, the service that supports the various functions that lead to VSCs. Accessing these files can provide not just historical data (e.g., previous contents, etc.) but additional analysis can be conducted by comparing the available versions over time.
Okay, so what does this mean to the forensic analyst? From an analyst’s perspective, there is a great deal of historical information within backed-up files. Windows 7 Previous Versions shell extension.
#System restore is disabled by your system administrator password
However, System Restore Points do not back up everything on a system for example, user data files are not backed up (and are therefore not restored, either), and all of the data (specifically, the passwords) in the SAM hive of the Registry are not backed up, as you wouldn’t want users to restore their systems to a previous point in time and have them not be able to access their systems, as a previous password (which they may not remember) had been restored.įigure 3.2. Users could revert the core functionality of their systems to a previous state through the System Restore functionality, effectively recovering it to a previous state. This proved to be a useful functionality, particularly when a user installed something (application, driver, etc.) that failed to work properly, or the system became infected with malware of some kind. Windows XP System Restore Point functionality.Īs illustrated in Figure 3.1, users can not only create Restore Points, but they can also restore the computer to an earlier time.