Cluster size determination using JPEG files

Abstract

File can be recovered by simply using traditional recovery means. However, a technique is required to distinguish one file to another when dealing with hard disk with corrupted filesystem metadata. As in a computer file system, a cluster is the smallest allocation of disk space to hold a file, information about the cluster size can help in determining the start of file which can be used to distinguish one file to another. This paper introduces a method for acquiring the cluster size by using data sets from DFRWS 2006 and DFRWS 2007. A tool called PredClus is developed to automatically display the predicted cluster size according to probabilistic percentage. By using PredClus, the cluster size used in both DFRWS 2006 and DFRWS 2007 can be determined. Thus, JPEG images that are not located at the starting address of any cluster are most probably thumbnails or embedded files. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.