Linux BootDisk
Tomsrtbt
Tom's Root Boot Rescue Disk is avaible at
www.toms.net/rb/. If you don't have one, create this floppy first. Then create a simple FAT floppy disk on which you'll place the static version of TestDisk's Linux executable. You must also create an l (that's a lower-case 'L') directory on the FAT diskette, then place a copy of the TermInfo file (named: linux) for linux terminal into that directory (the file is normally found at /usr/share/terminfo/l/linux; but it's also included with our Linux download). Once you've done all that and booted up with tomsrtbt, you would place the FAT disk into the floppy drive and enter:
mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /fl export TERM=linux export TERMINFO=. cd /fl ./testdisk_static /log
Because this second floppy filesystem is FAT, it's easy to copy the log file generated by TestDisk under any OS.
Paud
You can try to use the Paud boot floppy. It's based on a kernel 2.4.x which might access some drives that tomsrtbt cannot. Follow the same procedure as above.
paud.sf.net
Knoppix
Knoppix is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX has been shipped with various versions of TestDisk in its /usr/sbin/ directory; for example, Knoppix 3.7 uses its own linux compiled code from TestDisk 5.5 (NOV 2004). However, the latest Linux static version can always be downloaded and run under whatever version of Knoppix you have without a problem.
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