file <bin>  
strings  
strings -n5 <bin> 
strings -n16 <bin>#longer than 16
strings -tx <bin> #print offsets in hex 
binwalk <bin>  
hexdump -C -n 512 <bin> > hexdump.out  
hexdump -C <bin> | head # might find signatures in header
fdisk -lu <bin> #lists a drives partition and filesystems if multiple