DIGITAL FORENSIC RECOVERY OF DAMAGED MOBILE DEVICES USING A NON-INVASIVE PRACTITIONER-DRIVEN FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Mobile devices have become primary sources of digital evidence in modern investigations. Yet forensic data recovery becomes challenging when devices suffer physical damage, motherboard faults, or power-related failures. Conventional logical and software-based extraction techniques often fail in such situations, limiting investigator’s ability to obtain critical evidence. This paper proposes a structured forensic decision framework designed to evaluate the extractability of physically damaged mobile devices using non-destructive and evidence-preserving acquisition approaches. The proposed framework incorporates systematic device identification, damage assessment, access capability evaluation, controlled extraction, and evidence verification procedures. The methodology was evaluated using a dataset of sixty real-world mobile device examinations conducted in a controlled forensic laboratory environment. Experimental results demonstrate that the structured decision approach achieved an overall extraction success rate of 95.00% among the examined devices initially classified as non-functional. The findings highlight that peripheral hardware damage does not necessarily imply data loss and that structured access restoration strategies can enable successful forensic acquisition while maintaining evidentiary integrity. The proposed framework provides practical guidance for forensic investigators and contributes toward improving damaged- device evidence recovery in digital forensic investigations.