Corrupt RAW files - or are they?

[LongQ]

Had a couple of strange events yesterday using remote capture software, one of which seemed to involve the saved files (direct to PC) appearing to be written but with the program crashing at the last moment leaving nothing.

The other, a different program, didn;t crash and dispalyed the images on screen BUT the files, which do exist, do not seem to be recognised as genuine RAW files (or any recognised type in fact) by any of the several applications I have tried on them.

I suspect it is a lost cause but just in case there is a way out, does anyone know of anything that might recover from such an event?

After a few failures (unreported at the time) the system seems to have started to work again so I am somewhat puzzled about what the problem may have been.