Question
How can I run Imager from a portable drive?
Answer
Prerequisites:
- A computer other than the target system
Procedure:
- On a machine other than the system to be imaged, install FTK Imager
- Insert a flash drive formatted with either the FAT32 or NTFS file system
- Copy the entire “FTK Imager” installation folder (typically “C:\Program Files\AccessData\FTK Imager” or “C:\Program Files (x86)\AccessData\FTK Imager”) to your flash drive
- Insert the flash drive in the system to be imaged
- Navigate to the folder you created on the flash drive
- Run FTK Imager.exe (as Administrator) and use Imager as you normally would
Note: Because a live system is constantly changing, imaging a live system may produce an image that is not replicable. FTK Imager will write to the system RAM and perhaps the hard drive page file during the imaging process. Be aware of the risks of imaging a live system and make the decision carefully.
Overview
This will allow a user to create a portable “Imager Lite” from any full release of Imager.
Please note:
64-bit versions of FTK imager (version 3.4.3 and higher) require Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) add-on files to run. If the target machine does not have any MFC files available, then errors will occur about missing MFC files.
To ensure that newer versions of FTK imager can function without error, when being run from a removable, please also copy the MFC files to the removable.
I.e. Copy all mfc100*, mfc110*, mfc120*, and mfc140* files from a “c:\windows\system32” folder to the directory on the removable that contains the executable for FTK Imager, or copy to the root of the removable drive.
FTK Imager 4.5.0 needs 3 extra DLLs from Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 redistributable to function (which can be found in the “c:\windows\system32” folder) that you may need to copy to the removable drive as well:
* mfc140u.dll
* msvcp140.dll
* vcruntime140.dll
Ref: https://exterro.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/69000765662-run-ftk-imager-from-a-flash-drive-imager-lite-