FAT32 USB external drive lost its file system and now shows as a RAW file system

[BackItUp]

Disk : disk drive is a SEAGATE ST3250823A USB
          The 250 Gb drive had 1 FAT32 partition of about 250 Gb. (Exactly as it was shipped)
          When the disk was operating fine its only partition had a name that I gave it "Lacie250Gb".

Actions:
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I was writing big disk image files to this disk (chopped in parts of maximum size of 4 Gb for a FAT32 file system)
Then Windows XP gave me an error about a delayed write error.
Then the system (Win XP) did not respond anymore.
Then I switched off the PC (I should have done a Safe Remove of Hardware BUT the system was frozen)

After a restart of Win XP the disk was very slowly recognised by Windows File Explorer.
I got several messages like "The drive is not ready for use; its door may be open. Please check drive\Device\Harddisk3\DR10 and make sure that the disk is inserted and that the drive door is closed."
When I answered "continue" a few times the disk finally showed as "Local Disk K:".
WIN XP Disk Manager recognised the disk as a ST3250823A. It also showed that the disk had a RAW format of about 250Gb of which 100% was free.

I can of course not write to the disk anymore. Accessing it gives the "The drive is not ready for use; ..." message. So maybe the data is still there.

It would like to attempt a rescue of the data on this disk.
The very first action would be to make a RAW image of this disk before I attempt anything else.
My first concern is to recover the data. Recovering the disk would be an extra if I am convinced that the errors that lead to this situation are not hardware related.
(1) Is there a tool that can make RAW Images ?
(2) Is there a tool that can recover files from such a RAW Image (instead of from the real disk itself).
(3) Can this RAW image be used as a virtual disk ? Do Drive/File utilities also function on virtual drives ?
(4) Which are the logical actions and checks that I can perform to restore the FAT32 system (directory) and which utilities can be used for this ?
(5) Should I connect the disk to a PC using its USB interface, or is it better to cut through the case and then connect the disk on the IDE controller of the PC. ?

Thanks !!!

[Joep]

(1) Is there a tool that can make RAW Images ?

iRecover can do that. Pick simple recovery mode, right click on USB device and select 'create image file'.

(2) Is there a tool that can recover files from such a RAW Image (instead of from the real disk itself).

iRecover. On that same screen right click in empty space and select 'load image file'.

(3) Can this RAW image be used as a virtual disk ? Do Drive/File utilities also function on virtual drives ?

The open source filedisk driver can be used to do that. It does however not run in Vista (last time I checked). You mean chkdsk etc., if that can be used on the 'virtual drive'? Yes, I believe so, not tried. Documentation does suggest this.

(4) Which are the logical actions and checks that I can perform to restore the FAT32 system (directory) and which utilities can be used for this ?

It may very well be boot sector related in which case you can probably fix using DiskPatch. However that would need to be done on the USB disk, not the image file. If file system damage is more severe it is unlikely you can AND fix it AND maintain the data. Apart from chkdsk there are not tools to fix a damaged file system. And chkdsk may return the file system to a consistent state but if it has to discard data for that it will do so. Also, chkdsk will not work on a RAW file system so before running chkdsk you may still need DiskPatch.

(5) Should I connect the disk to a PC using its USB interface, or is it better to cut through the case and then connect the disk on the IDE controller of the PC. ?

If iRecover sees the disk then it is irrelevant. For DiskPatch preferred is to connect the disk to IDE controller however a modern BIOS can trick DiskPatch into believing it is dealing with a fixed disk (enable USB legacy support). DiskPatch only works with MBR disks, so disk containing a partition table, but I assume your disk meets this requirement.

In general: key factor is, in this case, the condition of the FAT(s). If those FATs are badly damaged, fragmented files are unrecoverable. No matter what you use to recover/fix the disk.

Your imaging idea is a good starting point. Once you have the image, I'd then diagnose with DiskPatch (create support analysis logfile) to get an idea what's wrong with the disk. In addition you may want to run a surface scan with DiskPatch. All these initial steps can be done with the demo versions.