Data carving is primarily used for which of the following purposes?

Data carving is primarily utilized for recovering fragmented files. This technique is particularly relevant in digital forensics and data recovery situations where files have been partially overwritten or fragmented across a disk. By analyzing the raw data on a storage medium, data carving identifies file signatures and retrieves them even if the file system metadata is damaged or absent.

This method is effective because it doesn't rely on the file system’s existing directory structure, allowing recovery of data that may otherwise be inaccessible. It can reconstruct files from clusters of data that are scattered across the storage device, which often occurs in cases of data corruption or when files have been deleted.

In contrast, the other options serve entirely different purposes: analyzing network traffic involves monitoring data packets moving through a network, encrypting sensitive files protects data by making it unreadable without the proper key, and creating backups of data ensures that copies of files are preserved for future retrieval. Each of these functions addresses specific needs within data management and security, but they do not relate to the recovery of fragmented files as data carving does.