advice on data recovery?

[Dave Stevens]

A mac using friend gave me a usb disk saying the data had gone missing.
I have been able, by using automount, to see 21 gibberish-labelled icons
that may have been files or folders. I'm thinking of copying the disk
to some other medium so I can work on a copy rather than the damaged
data. Can anyone suggest how to do the copy? Disks thinks it's a
windows FAT32 partition.

I've been looking at forensics such as foremost, scalpel, testdisk. A
recommendation there would be useful too.

TIA

d

-- 
Affectionate tactile stimulation is a primary need, a need which must
be satisfied if the infant is to develop as a healthy human being.

And what is a healthy human being? One who is able to love, to work, to
play, and to think critically and unprejudicially.

--  Ashley Montagu – Touching, The human significance of the skin. 2e
1978