{"id":13101,"date":"2013-07-30T17:51:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-30T17:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/file-carving\/"},"modified":"2017-01-11T16:41:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T16:41:51","slug":"file-carving","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving","title":{"rendered":"File Carving"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_file_carving_mean\">What Does File Carving Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>File carving refers to the reconstruction of computer files that takes place without helpful metadata indicators or other specific guidance. In the absence of this directive information, software systems have to use sophisticated heuristics and probability handling tools in order to successfully reassemble files.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_file_carving\">Techopedia Explains File Carving<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>One definition of file carving that is presented by some experts is the idea that software systems have to accurately collect pieces of file information from a larger &#8220;homogenous&#8221; data set on a disk drive or other storage area. File carving software can use markers like headers and footers to try to identify parts of a file. Beyond this, specialized algorithms can also help to improve file recovery outcomes.\n<\/p>\n<p>Part of the success of file carving relies on the idea that files that are deleted from a computer or device are not really completely lost until their memory locations are deleted during a device wipe or other fundamental sweeping away of residual data. In many cases, file carving can be part of data forensics, where law-enforcement professionals or other specialized experts can reconstruct files, even after something like a disk formatting, or when the user has effectively deleted the files from a drive. Since many of the fragments of the file may still rest in unallocated memory, they can theoretically be reconstructed.\n<\/p>\n<p> It\u2019s important to note that other file recovery practices rely on more available system information. By contrast, file carving is largely done based on guesswork, which is why these software systems need advanced features that can more effectively bring order out of chaos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does File Carving Mean? File carving refers to the reconstruction of computer files that takes place without helpful metadata indicators or other specific guidance. In the absence of this directive information, software systems have to use sophisticated heuristics and probability handling tools in order to successfully reassemble files. Techopedia Explains File Carving One definition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[223],"class_list":["post-13101","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-storage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is File Carving? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of File Carving and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"File Carving\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of File Carving and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-11T16:41:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"File Carving\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-30T17:51:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-11T16:41:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving\"},\"wordCount\":271,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/29511\/file-carving\",\"name\":\"What is File Carving? 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