Question How can I acquire a full disk image, of an Android Virtual Device, in Android Studio?

[Atreyo Bhattacharjee]

I have a presentation to give about Android forensics, and for a demonstration, I need a disk image of the "suspect's mobile phone". I've gone into Android Studio, and in a new AVD, I've just put some contacts and text messages. How can I get an image (.dd or .img) of this virtual device?

For the demonstration, I will be using the open source forensics toolkit, Autopsy: Article explaining how to use Autopsy for Android forensics

My virtual device is running Android 5.1, with Nexus 4 skin.

 

[webworkings]

You can't actually just make one, or save the info, like you would a regular file. It requires you have the right kind of software to make such a file. Not something a general person would normally have, although there are a few programs you can get for doing this, they aren't so cheap.

A couple of programs I have heard of are "Belkasoft Evidence Center" https://belkasoft.com and "Phone Image Carver" http://www.phoneimagecarver.com/

There are likely more programs out there, just takes time to do some searching.

 

[Atreyo Bhattacharjee]

To my understanding, the software you liked to, is for analyzing a forensics image, acquired form a physical device. I don't know how to get an image of my Android VM, and that is my problem. I have software for Android forensics already.

 

[webworkings]

You are correct about the second one, apologies. The first, however, I just listed the wrong version of their products. They do have the type you are asking about. It would be through their acquisition tool.