Introduction

FTK Imager is a powerful and widely used digital forensic tool for acquiring and analyzing digital evidence from a variety of sources. The tool is user-friendly and intuitive, making it suitable for both novice and experienced users. FTK Imager is widely used by law enforcement, government agencies, and private organizations to investigate and prosecute criminal activity, as well as for internal investigations and audits.

Access Data, a leading provider of digital forensic software and services, created the tool. FTK Imager is part of the Forensic Toolkit (FTK) suite of tools, which also includes FTK Enterprise, FTK Forensic, and FTK Portable. FTK Imager is a stand-alone tool for acquiring and analyzing digital evidence from a variety of sources, including hard drives, memory cards, USB drives, and other storage media. One of FTK Imager's key features is its ability to create forensic images of digital devices (Dodt, 2021).

These images are exact copies of the original data and can be used to analyze and investigate digital evidence without causing any changes to the original data. FTK Imager can generate forensic images in various formats such as RAW, E01, DD, and SMART. The program also works with a variety of file systems, including NTFS, FAT, HFS+, and EXT (www.hackingarticles.in).

FTK Imager also includes a variety of analysis tools for investigating digital evidence. Keyword searching, file filtering, and timeline analysis are among the tools available. The program also includes a hex viewer and a file viewer for viewing and analyzing individual files and data structures. FTK Imager's ability to analyze and recover deleted files is another key feature. The program employs sophisticated algorithms to locate and recover deleted files, even if they have been overwritten or partially destroyed. This feature is especially useful in cases where suspects have attempted to conceal or destroy evidence. FTK Imager is also designed to be highly customizable, with a plethora of options and settings that can be tailored to the specific requirements of each investigation. The tool also includes a scripting language for automating repetitive tasks and customizing its functionality. To summarise, FTK Imager is a powerful and versatile digital forensic tool widely used in law enforcement, government agencies, and private organizations to investigate and prosecute criminal activities, as well as conduct internal investigations and audits. Because of its user-friendly interface, advanced analysis tools, and customizable features, the tool is a must-have for anyone involved in digital forensics (www.hacknos.com).

One of the most important steps in the investigation of digital forensics is forensic imaging. It involves the process of creating an archive or copy of the complete hard disk. It is a data file containing all of the information required to boot into the operating system. However, for this imaged disc to work, it must be implemented to the hard disk drive. The disc image files cannot be used to recover a hard drive since they must be opened and loaded on the drive with an imaging application. A single hard disk may hold a large number of disc images. Disk images may additionally be stored on larger-capacity flash drives (www.studocu.com).