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7-Zip plugins\Forensic7z

Forensic7z is a plugin for the popular 7-Zip archiver. You can use Forensic7z to open and browse disk images created by specialized software for forensic analysis, such as Encase or FTK Imager.

At the moment, the Forensic7z plugin supports images in the following formats:

  • ASR Expert Witness Compression Format (.S01)
  • Encase Image File Format (.E01, .Ex01)
  • Encase Logical Image File Format (.L01, .Lx01)
  • Advanced Forensics Format (.AFF)
  • AccessData FTK Imager Logical Image (.AD1)
  • WinHex WHX Format (.WHX)

Encrypted images are not currently supported.

Installation

The Forensic7z distribution package is an ordinary Zip archive that contains the following three files:

  • Forensic7z.64.dll – the 64-bit version of the plugin
  • Forensic7z.32.dll – the 32-bit version of the plugin
  • ReadMe.txt – the user instructions

To install the plugin into the 7-Zip installation folder, you need to create the "Formats" subfolder. After that, copy Forensic.64.dll or Forensic.32.dll (depending on your 7-Zip edition) to that subfolder. If you do that, each time you launch 7-Zip, it will automatically find Forensic7z and use it when opening forensic disc images files.

Usage

When opening a multi-volume disk image, we recommend opening the first volume first to enable Forensic7z to correctly find and process the rest of the volumes.

If the image you are opening is a physical disk image, 7-Zip will show a single file inside – an uncompressed RAW disk image without metadata:

Open E01 file in 7-Zip

If the file is a disk image with a supported file system (FAT, NTFS, exFAT and several others), you will be able to open this file as an enclosed archive right in 7-Zip (this operation does not require the file to be extracted), view and extract its contents:

Open E01 file in 7-Zip

If the image file you are opening is a logical evidence file, opening it in 7-Zip will give you a complete list of all files in this image:

Open AD1 file in 7-Zip

The Properties command provides access to various metadata included in the disk image: Evidence number, Case number, Examiner name, etc.

Open E01 file in 7-Zip

Current version

  • Plugin version: 1.6
  • Distribution package size: 335 KB
  • Distribution package release date: 31 Dec 2021

Additional information

You can also open files of any formats supported by Forensic7z like ordinary folders directly in Explorer using TC4Shell:

Opening an E01 file in Windows Explorer Opening an AD1 file in Windows Explorer

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