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Following along the airport analogy once again, the investigator may observe, note, collect witnesses, collect videotape, and then isolate the scene and collect the remaining physical evidence. In a standard PC, volatile information can be found in several places other than the RAM.

This limited definition occurs partly because most computer forensics investigators think of a hard disk as being a static device that is collected in an “at rest” state or offline from an active operating system.

In the early days of computer forensics investigations in the criminal arena, investigators focused heavily on computer systems’ hard disks. Today, a great deal of emphasis is still placed on the physical hard disk storage devices because of their static nature.

Unfortunately, by the 1980s they were fighting for a larger slice of a shrinking pie. DEC missed the PC revolution almost entirely, and by the 1990s was a shell of its former self, sustaining billions of dollars in losses and laying of tens of thousands of workers.

DEC expanded its customer support, marketing, and software and service offerings such that by 1980, it offered one of the broadest product lines in the industry and marketed to the whole spectrum of computing customers. By 1970, the minicomputer industry consisted of a dozen medium-sized companies led by DEC, Data General, Prime, Wang, and Tandem.

These machines cost from $125,000 to $250,000 complete with necessary peripherals and software, substantially below largescale computers. DEC marketed most of its early machines to specialized users in science and engineering but soon began marketing more capable, easier to use machines to business users who wanted to perform applications in a decentralized way for greater control, responsiveness, and interactiveness.

In addition, the minicomputer greatly expanded the size of the independent software industry,10 another step toward the PC era in which independent vendors would dominate in software. In another foreshadowing of the PC industry, the first minicomputers were designed by the system vendor and powered by that firm’s central processing unit (CPU) but assembled from parts, components, peripherals, and software  [ Read More ]