I'm preparing to do archival imaging of a bunch of IDE/ATA HDDs (disk capacities range from 1 GB to 300 GB). I'll be using a Windows 8 machine to create the images, and afterward there must be some reasonably easy way to browse and retrieve individual files within the images, also under Windows 8. Mountable images would be ideal. Given these constraints, what imaging solution would give me the most directly faithful low-level representation of the disk contents? I want to capture absolutely every capturable bit of information on the disk, including the MBR and Partition Table. If possible, I'd even want to capture the servo tracks, though I'd be surprised if any software were capable of that. I certainly want to preserve all fragmentation of data, precise ordering of data by track and sector, etc.
I've done plenty of my own research and have discovered a plethora of imaging solutions, but it is proving difficult to find the balance I need between low-level accuracy and usability, and so far I haven't been able to find a tool that images the disk at a low level and ALSO allows for mounting of the image file or some other type of reasonably easy access to its contents.
Thanks very much in advance for all efforts to help me find a workable solution.
