Data Carving is a data recovery technique that allows for data with no file system allocation information to be extracted by identifying sectors and clusters belonging to the file.

Data Carving usually searches through raw sectors looking for specific desired file signatures. The fact that there is no allocation information means that the investigator must specify a block size of data to carve out upon finding a matching file signature.

This presents the challenge that the beginning of the file is still present and that there is (depending on how common the file signature is) a risk of many false hits.

Also, data carving requires that the files recovered be located in sequential sectors (rather than fragmented) as there is no allocation information to point to fragmented file portions. This method can be time and resource intensive.