Yeah, but couldn’t the defense argue that a copy is not admissible, given the chain of custody? I don’t know, but that would be what the lawyers will try.
Well, the shop owner had custody of the computer and says he made a copy of the hard drive before he gave the original to the FBI. He could swear to that under oath. That seems like a pretty good chain of evidence trail to me - no middlemen between the original computer and him.