What PC recorded data onto a USB thumb drive?

[shokan]

Is it possible to determine what specific computer recorded data onto a USB thumb drive by examining that data?

Thanks.

[-pops-]

Depends what the data is.

MS Word (and most likely other programs in the MS Office suite) place hidden code within the data which can trace back the origin of the data but, what use this is, I've no idea. Have a look at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/check-for-hidden-text-comments-and-revisions-before-sending-a-legal-document-HA001077737.aspx for details.

Considering the gazillions of computers there are around, the chances of finding a specific one that was used to record the information is fairly remote unless, of course, you are restricted to a few candidates only.

Why do you want to do this? My first thoughts are that you could spend your time doing more important things.

[Digerati]

MS Word (and most likely other programs in the MS Office suite) place hidden code within the data which can trace back the origin of the data but, what use this is, I've no idea.

The use is simple, once you know why. It is because in many businesses, many different people may edit the same document. So Word keeps track of edits, who did it, and the timestamp for change tracking/document managment purposes.

But as far as the thumb drive, even if a Word document, if the document was simply copied to the drive, instead of saved to it by Word, it will not show who copied the file to the thumb drive.

[shokan]

In this case, the data is all movies in avi format. I want to know which computer among just several recorded the data. And, btw, if it is possible, does this then hold true for any portable media such as homemade dvds, flash cards, external storage of any portable kind?

[Digerati]

As far as I know, this holds true. If you were talking a corporate server, there may be logs on the server, but the there will not be anything in the file that will tell you the last computer to save it there.