Yesterday afternoon we ran session 2 of ‘Let’s talk about FRED’. Read all about session 1 in my previous blog post here. Session 2 was a Members-only ‘show and tell’ about FRED, and we were lucky to be able to hear case studies from three Members on how they are using their FRED forensics workstations.
First up was Julienne Pascoe, Digital Archivist at Library and Archives Canada. Julienne noted that they have only recently acquired a FRED but she was able to describe some initial steps towards getting workflows established.It was interesting to hear about the research she did before getting a FRED and she shared a list of links that she had found about other cultural heritage organizations who use a FRED and disk imaging tools. This helpful list can be found on her slide deck.
She described the iterative approach to the FRED pilot project at LAC, and their plans to start small and build it out. She discussed how she found resources from the DANNNG (Digital Archival traNsfer, iNgest, and packagiNg) Group really helpful in planning this work. Disk Imaging Descision Factors helps with decision making around whether the creation of a disk image is necessary or not and Tool Selection Factors was a helpful way of assessing whether FRED was the right tool for the job for them. Julienne showed some of the spreadsheets she had created to go through that assessment process and evaluate the FRED. She noted that this was a really helpful process and one she would do again when evaluating disk imaging tools.
It was noted that the training on the FRED from Digital Intelligence was really helpful despite the fact that it was primarily aimed at those working in law enforcement. It included useful content on how to operate the FRED, as well as how to maintain it and troubleshoot it.
Some initial testing has been carried out (taking on board the iterative approach of the pilot project) and they have been developing metrics for documenting what they are doing - for example logging the results and outcomes from transferring data from floppy disks.
In her last slide she noted the need for more testing and analysis and highlighted the key challenges as being people (staff resource for this work), technical (challenges around configuring the FRED and learning curve for new technology) and resources (acknowledging that there are a limited number of resources available or community spaces for knowledge exchange).
The next case study was from Leontien Talboom, Technical Analyst at Cambridge University Libraries. Leontien noted that she had been using the FRED for about a year and had transferred 500 carriers in that time. She shared some of the learnings and challenges from this work. The workflow in use at Cambridge involves logical file transfer rather than disk imaging for the majority of carriers. Their FRED runs with a Windows environment but BitCurator is also available on a virtual machine. Other tools running on the workstation include FastCopy (for logical file transfer), FTK imager and Roadkil’s Unstoppable Copier (which is helpful for copying corrupted files that will not be handled by FastCopy).
Leontien explained some of the challenges of working with older media formats. The fact that their FRED workstation came with a 5.25 inch floppy disk drive was thought to be a good thing, but in reality it hasn’t worked as consistently as they would have hoped. These disks come in a variety of different flavours and unfortunately not all can be read by the FRED. For this reason, they now have other workstations alongside the FRED and have set up a number of 5.25 inch floppy drives and GreaseWeazle to try and transfer some of those carriers that FRED can't work with.
In favour of FRED, Leontien praised its power and storage capacity and was also very happy with support received from Digital Intelligence.
Finally we heard from Zachary Maiorana, Librarian/Archivist for Digital Programs at Harvard Radcliffe Institute Schlesinger Library. Zachary has been using the FRED workstation on and off over a period of many years. He talked about the configuration of the FRED and what tools are installed. He uses Forensic Toolkit, Terracopy and Filemaker and utilizes FRED for most born-digital file analysis (though not the processing of optical AV media). They have also purchased external write blockers for use with FRED.
FRED is not the only workstation they have for transfer for digital content. Alongside FRED they have a Dell PC that they have named Ginger (and apparently Ginger can do everything that FRED does)!
In terms of the benefits of using FRED, he echoed Leontien’s comments about both the processing power and the quality of support available from Digital Intelligence. He also noted how well FRED works alongside tools such as Forensics Toolkit. He noted some of the circumstantial benefits of having a FRED - particularly in terms of the interest it generates from the leadership team and the resulting resources that were made available to upskill staff.
Zachary also noted that FRED is over-powered for most of the things they need to do with it . He also mentioned the tension that exists around the ethics of digital forensics and the potential evolution of the hardware and software to better meet the needs of their primary customer base of law enforcers. He noted that software tools may already be evolving into areas such as image recognition that make him uncomfortable.
In the discussion session there was some useful sharing of experiences, including around the benefits of the full (paid) version of Forensic Toolkit and the importance of having proper training on that. A suggestion was also made that it would be helpful to have a way of allowing FRED users (or potential users) to continue to network and share their experiences. It was noted that there weren’t that many opportunities to compare notes with others using FRED for digital preservation purposes. The two sessions this week have been helpful in allowing the community to learn from each other, but having the ability to check in and ask questions over a longer time period was thought to be a helpful next step, particularly for those just getting started with the FRED forensic workstation. We will go away and have a think about how to keep this conversation going…
If you want to find out more, speaker's slides are linked from the programme on our event page. DPC Members also have access to recordings of all of the presentations in full (log into the DPC website to view these).
Disclaimer - the DPC is vendor neutral and this event was not an endorsement of the FRED forensic workstation, rather a space for members to discuss the pros and cons of this solution in a balanced way.