SAW

SMART Acquisition Workshop

Smart Acquisition Workshop (SAW) is the Data Acquisition component of a case management framework optimized to deliver outstanding performance and benefits in large, complex data forensic investigations.


As a stand-alone utility, SAW is a robust, configurable and easy to use GUI program for creating “forensic” images from storage media. SAW runs under Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems.

The images SAW creates can be used by SmartMount to deliver unparalleled performance when storing, searching, authenticating, analyzing, carving, indexing and interacting with data stored within ExpertWitness/EnCase images, SMART images, FTK Images, dd images, Virtual Machine images and many other “forensic” image formats. The efficiency realized by using SAW and SmartMount are astounding and the efficiency is “exported” or inherited, transparently by any tool or process you are already using.

This means, for example, you can search in EnCase up to twenty times faster or index in FTK up to twenty times faster.

That’s right: Up to twenty times faster (your mileage may vary).

Traditional (legacy) data forensics actually introduces a significant amount of inefficiency, complexity and entropy into the data forensics paradigm. Accordingly, the larger and more complicated the data, the more inefficiency, complexity and entropy is introduced.

SAW significantly remediates the inefficiency, complexity and entropy inherent in legacy data forensics and e-Discovery.

  • simplifies the representation of “forensic” images
  • optimizes the data contained within “forensic” images
  • reduces storage requirements
  • optimizes the way data is stored and accessed throughout the process lifecycle