Travelers Home and Marine Insurance Company, The v. Pope et al

Filing 115

ORDER REGARDING COURT-APPOINTED COMPUTER FORENSICS EXPERT directing parties to inform the court of any objections to Mr. Abrams requests within fourteen (14) days. Signed by Honorable Joseph F Anderson, Jr on 11/21/2011. (bshr, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA
ROCK HILL DIVISION
The Travelers Home and Marine
Insurance Company,

)
)
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Plaintiff,
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)
vs.
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Trudy Pope, as named Trustee of
)
“Clover Real Estate Land Trust,” John )
Gregory Gardner, Amy P. Gardner, and )
RBC Bank (USA),
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)
Defendants.
)
)

C/A No.: 0:10-cv-1688-JFA

ORDER REGARDING
COURT-APPOINTED
COMPUTER FORENSICS EXPERT

The court has received correspondence from Mr. Abrams regarding the materials
to be examined.
Mr. Abrams has completed the imaging process on four of the five external hard
drives and on both of the computers. He informs the court that the final hard drive (a
Seagate Freeagent external hard drive) will not boot up when connected to power and a
computer’s USB port. It is not clear if this error is because of a damaged hard drive or
damaged USB interface electronics. It is possible that Mr. Abrams could recover the
data from the drive if he bypasses the USB circuitry and connects directly to the SATA
connection on the hard drive. In order to do that, however, Mr. Abrams would have to
break the plastic housing that contains the hard drive. This action would void any
warranties on the drive and render it unusable for normal USB operation. Mr. Abrams
informs the court that he has successfully recovered data from USB external hard drives

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in the past using this technique where the error was due to malfunctioning interface
hardware.
The court wishes to be informed of any objections by either party to Mr. Abrams
taking the action outlined above. The parties are hereby directed to file any objections
within fourteen (14) days.

IT IS SO ORDERED.
November 21, 2011
Columbia, South Carolina

Joseph F. Anderson, Jr.
United States District Judge

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