RE: Questions about PC clock operations

Usually there are several mechanisms at play for a given machine keeping
time. There's a clock that works when the machine is off, a real time clock
chip when the machine is powered up, and most operating systems use NTP to
keep making adjustments to the other two.

This makes for pretty accurate time keeping for the most part.

-----Original Message-----
From: ricci@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ricci@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 5:05 PM
To: security-basics@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Questions about PC clock operations

Hello All,

As you know time is a piece of information critical to digital forensics
investigation. However, as the paper in DFRWS 2006 pointed out, the PC
clock is not steady but drifting.

So can any one let me know how the PC clock operates? Is there any
difference between the time between Linux clock and Windows? Will the
operating system be affecting the clock?

Please advise.

Thx.

Ricci


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