{"id":540,"date":"2022-06-22T13:55:08","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T13:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/?p=540"},"modified":"2022-06-22T13:55:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T13:55:08","slug":"event-log-explorer-forensic-edition-working-with-damaged-logs-or-disks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/event-log-explorer-forensic-edition-working-with-damaged-logs-or-disks\/","title":{"rendered":"Event Log Explorer Forensic Edition &#8211; working with damaged logs or disks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, I will show how to work with damaged event log files. Event Log Explorer forensic edition can extract events from damaged files.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take a log file (e.g. a security log file) and open it with Event Log Explorer using File-&gt; Open Log File.<\/p>\n<p>Event Log Explorer opens this file as it always does.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_normal.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-541\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_normal-300x164.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_normal-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_normal-768x419.png 768w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_normal-660x360.png 660w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_normal.png 893w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we will intentionally corrupt this log. I will modify several bytes (commonly, it\u2019s enough to change only 1 bit) with any hex editor. It is not necessary that someone may damage an event log \u2013 it\u2019s not easy, but such issues may occur because of technical defects like hardware failures, driver errors, etc.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log1.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-542\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log1-300x238.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log1-300x238.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log1.png 630w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now if you try to open this event log file, Event Log Explorer will display zero events:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Unable_to_open.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-544\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Unable_to_open-300x81.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"81\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Unable_to_open-300x81.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Unable_to_open-660x179.png 660w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Unable_to_open.png 753w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can see a red sign near the navigation buttons. If you hover your mouse over this sign, you will see a message \u201cThe event log file is corrupted\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>A similar problem occurs if you open this log in Windows Event Viewer:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Event Viewer cannot open the event log or custom view. Verify Event Log service is running or query is too long. The event log file is corrupted (1500).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s still possible to read events from this log file!<\/p>\n<p>Select Forensics-&gt;Forensic Open File and change File Access Method to <strong>Direct Access Method<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Direct_access_method.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-545\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Direct_access_method-300x201.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Direct_access_method-300x201.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Direct_access_method.png 574w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This feature will open your log file!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged1.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-546\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged1-300x176.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged1-300x176.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged1-660x386.png 660w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged1.png 755w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Note that in my case, it displays fewer events than it displayed for the original event log, but this is better than 0 events anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s make more changes to the log and fill the first 8K with random bytes.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log2.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-547\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log2-300x170.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"170\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log2-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log2-768x434.png 768w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log2-660x373.png 660w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/damage_log2.png 994w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you try to open it using Direct method as before, Event Log Explorer will fail to open it. However, you can use Deep Scan option. Open Forensic-&gt;Deep Scan, select your file and press OK.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Deep_scan.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-548\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Deep_scan-300x176.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"176\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Deep_scan-300x176.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Deep_scan.png 582w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Event Log Explorer will scan your files for events.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged2.png\" data-rel=\"lightbox-gallery-CRCLoI7B\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-549\" src=\"http:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged2-300x178.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"178\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged2-300x178.png 300w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged2-660x391.png 660w, https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Open_damaged2.png 752w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You can use deep scan not only for event log files. You can scan disk images including virtual disks or even physical or logical disks.<\/p>\n<p>Deep scan may help you to find more events even if you have undamaged event log files. E.g. if a log was cleared, you can still find cleared events on the disk if they were not overwritten.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/download.php\">Download Event Log Explorer Forensic Edition<\/a> and try Deep scan and Direct file access options with your files!<\/p>\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540&#038;t=Event%20Log%20Explorer%20Forensic%20Edition%20%E2%80%93%20working%20with%20damaged%20logs%20or%20disks&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F06%2FLogDamaged_featured.png&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Event%20Log%20Explorer%20Forensic%20Edition%20%E2%80%93%20working%20with%20damaged%20logs%20or%20disks\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540&#038;text=Check%20this%20Event%20Log%20Explorer%20blog%20post\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-reddit nolightbox\" data-provider=\"reddit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Reddit\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/submit?url=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540&#038;title=Event%20Log%20Explorer%20Forensic%20Edition%20%E2%80%93%20working%20with%20damaged%20logs%20or%20disks\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img alt=\"reddit\" title=\"Share on Reddit\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/reddit.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-pinterest nolightbox\" data-provider=\"pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Pin it with Pinterest\" href=\"https:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540&#038;media=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F06%2FLogDamaged_featured.png&#038;description=Event%20Log%20Explorer%20Forensic%20Edition%20%E2%80%93%20working%20with%20damaged%20logs%20or%20disks\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img alt=\"pinterest\" title=\"Pin it with Pinterest\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/pinterest.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-linkedin nolightbox\" data-provider=\"linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Linkedin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?mini=true&#038;url=https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540&#038;title=Event%20Log%20Explorer%20Forensic%20Edition%20%E2%80%93%20working%20with%20damaged%20logs%20or%20disks\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img alt=\"linkedin\" title=\"Share on Linkedin\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/linkedin.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Event%20Log%20Explorer%20Forensic%20Edition%20%E2%80%93%20working%20with%20damaged%20logs%20or%20disks&#038;body=Check%20this%20Event%20Log%20Explorer%20blog%20post:%20https%3A%2F%2Feventlogxp.com%2Fblog%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F540\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px\"><img alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none\" src=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this article, I will show how to work with damaged event log files. Event Log Explorer forensic edition can extract events from damaged files. Let\u2019s take a log file (e.g. a security log file) and open it with Event Log Explorer using File-&gt; Open Log File. Event Log Explorer opens this file as it always does. Now we will intentionally corrupt this log. I\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/event-log-explorer-forensic-edition-working-with-damaged-logs-or-disks\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,7],"tags":[80,51,79,49],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eventlogxp.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}