C4P, MySQL and Windows 7

I can just about remember the thrill of upgrading to a new OS. When I was the new kid on the block I couldn't wait to upgrade from Windows 98SE to XP Pro (somehow we missed out Windows ME). Anyhow the newer kids on the block have migrated to Windows 7 (it is prettier, more stable, blah blah). Now I am a dinosaur with XP Pro 64 bit!

Anyway I had a call today about getting various aspects of C4P to play nicely with MySQL on a Vista 64 bit box. In our office we don't actually use Vista on any of our forensic boxes so I thought I'd check out the issues on one of Windows 7 64 bit boxes. As you know (because if you are still reading this you probably use C4P along with a MySQL DB) C4P interacts with the MySQL database in two areas:

1. within Encase at Enscript level if the pre categorization option is selected
   
2. or via Data Migration/ Special/ Update Case Direct from C4P Hash Database within the Categorizer for Pictures program itself.
   

Both of these connections require an MySQL ODBC connector driver to communicate with the running MYSQL C4P hash database using a suitable database connection string. Essentially in this scenario we have a choice of four MySQL ODBC drivers:

1. MySQL ODBC 5.1 64 bit
2. MySQL ODBC 5.1 32bit
3. MySQL ODBC 3.51 64 bit
4. My SQL ODBC 3.51 32 bit
   

All bar the 3.51 64 bit driver are installed via a Windows installer. The 3.51 64 bit driver is slightly trickier to install - you need to unpack the zip, run a command prompt as administrator, navigate the command prompt to your unpacked zip folder and then run the command

Install 0

Enscript level communication

At Enscript level it is possible to modify the database connection string which allows you to specify which ODBC connector driver to use. In testing on a Windows 7 64 bit box I have found that both the 3.51 and 5.1 64 bit drivers work (if the drivers fail you generally get a long unintelligible error message). The C4P 4.02 enscript allows the user to configure their own database connection string. The string that works for me is:

Provider=MSDASQL;DRIVER={MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver};SERVER=Your_server_name_or_IP_address;DATABASE=c4p_hash;UID=c4p_user;PASSWORD=password;OPTION=3

Simply change 3.51 to 5.1 if you are using the later driver.

Categorizer for Pictures communication

The database connection string used by this program is hard coded and not user configurable. The program requires the 3.51 driver. However I could not get the Data Migration/ Special/ Update Case Direct from C4P Hash Database option to work on the Windows 7 64 bit box using the 3.51 64 bit driver. I suspect this is due to a permissions issue and tried to run C4P as administrator but I still failed to connect to the MySQL C4P hash db. However I was able to get the Data Migration/ Special/ Update Case Direct from C4P Hash Database option to work using the MySQL ODBC 3.51 32 bit driver.

Conclusion

Other combinations may work but on a Windows 7 64 bit box I recommend installing the MySQL ODBC 5.1 64 bit driver and the MySQL ODBC 3.51 32 bit driver to get C4P and the C4P graphics extractor enscript to play nicely with the MySQL C4P hash database.