Ultimate Boot CD

[Computer_Freak]

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Introduction

UBCD is, as its name indicates a CD that has the distinction of being bootable. Bootable means that we can start the computer and access their content without the need for an operating system (OS in English or abstract) such as Windows or Linux. This is particularly interesting for computers that are down or have not yet installed system.

UBCD contains a large amount of tools (all free) to deal with a very large number of situations or breakdowns. It is an ideal tool for troubleshooting a computer with the OS that does not start or to prepare a computer that will receive an operating system.

The latest version of UBCD can be downloaded from the official site: Ultimate Boot CD

Before entering the heart of the matter we would talk about the tools on this CD to see how to create the first CD from the downloaded file and how to start your PC with UBCD.

[Computer_Freak]

Preparation of the CD

Above all we must start with "decompress" the downloaded EXE file. To do this simply double click below for a window asks you to select the directory where you want to put the files.

Once this is done in the directory you will find a file called: ubcd34-full.iso

The ISO file is an "image" of the CD.

CD burning is an important step because it is not wrong. As I said before the CD must be bootable which means it does not burn the ISO file to a CD for this to work. In your burning software you must select a "project" Special to burn a CD image.

In the Nero, for example, must go in the menu and the submenu BURN THE IMAGE ... and finally select our famous ISO file and then start writing.

For other burning software, the procedure is slightly different but 'how to' remain the same, the important thing is to burn the file as an image and not as a file.

[Computer_Freak]

Starting UBCD

To start UBCD, the first thing to do is put the CD into the drive and restart the computer. There are several possible cases:

Either you get to the next screen and in this case everything is fine nothing to do more:



If you're not on this screen, it means that your computer is not set to boot from the CD. In this case it is necessary to restart the PC and go into the BIOS (by pressing the Delete key at boot time or another key that must be shown at the bottom of the screen). In the BIOS menu must find the menu to adjust what is called the boot sequence. To do this you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus. Normally this is not very difficult to find.
Once the boot sequence located just change the "first boot" and indicate CDROM (to use the arrows and the enter key on the keyboard). Once this is done leave the BIOS safeguarding the changes. I can not be more specific on this point because of a PC with another BIOS can be completely different level of the organization.

The computer must then reboot and you fall on the screen above.

Before seeing what contains UBCD, lets begin to see how it navigates through menus.

[Computer_Freak]

Browse UBCD

The interface is fairly basic. To enter a menu or run a tool just press the button indicated just before it.

For example, to go under "Tools Mainbord" we must press the F1 key. Once in this menu you can scroll pages with the arrows on the right and left of the keyboard. To return to the previous menu simply press ESC.

The most frequently used buttons to launch programs are the keys F1 to F9 then the numbers 1 to 9.

When you launch a program that launches a sequence until the program is loaded. When you leave a program if the computer does not restart just restart leaving the CD in the drive to return to the main menu of UBCD.

F1. Tools for Motherboard
Page 1: Test System, Test processor, memory test, Test Device
Page 2: Information Processor, Information System Benchmarks
Page 3: Tools for BIOS

F2. Tools for Hard Drives
Page 1: Installation of hard drives
Page 2: Diagnosis of hard disks
Page 3: Diagnosis of hard disks (more)
Page 4: Tools of hard disks
Page 5: Cleaners, Cloneurs Publishers and hard drives

F3. Management File
Page 1: Partitioning Tools, Boot Manager
Page 2: File Explorer, NTFS Tools

F4. Other Tools
Page 1: Anti Virus, Network tools

F5. Tools Users

F6. Floppy Boot DOS / Linux
Page 1: Floppy DOS, Linux Diskettes

F8. Start on the first disk drive

F9. Start on the second hard disk

F10. Console UBCD

Now see further what this CD contains.

[Computer_Freak]

Tools

The first thing you notice when browsing the menus of the CD is that there are many things! For a complete list of the simplest tools is to consult on the site of UBCD (see link at the beginning).
Nevertheless those we can find really interesting.

• Tools for testing equipment (memory, CPU, hard disk, benchmarks ... )
  
  These tools are in the first menu (F1). Among those tools that I think the most interesting are those used to test memory. In particular, I recommend memtest86 (F5) is very efficient and simple to use. Other tests seem very useful not only where particular.
  
  
  
  
  
• Diagnostic tools for Hard Drives
  
  Menu 2 page 2 and 3. There is software for each brand SD, attention to take the good. These software programs depending on the disc drive and trademarks to various tests more or less pushed not available for Windows and have a much more precise result on errors. The soft Seagate example analyzes the disc and gives error codes whose precise description is available from Seagate.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Tools for Managing Hard Disks.
  
  Menu 2 page 4. These tools allow for a low-level format a hard disk. I do not recommend the use of these tools to all people. The low-level format is a long process that must be used if your hard disk is defective and can not be repaired otherwise.
  
  

[Computer_Freak]

• Partitioning tools always hard drives
  
  Menu 3 Page 1. The management tools are very useful partitions before installing a new OS on a machine. They can create, modify and delete partitions of all types. As fan of Partition Magic (which is a soft charge and therefore not on UBCD) I can not dwell too much on software present on UBCD. However I can advise the use of Ranish Partition Manager and Partition Resizer to whether the transactions cited above.
  
  
  
  
  
• Antivirus
  
  Menu 4. Attention with regard to the Anti-Virus update as date depends on the version of your UBCD. For these tools I have no preference, if you must use is that your computer is not in very good shape and in this case Do not hesitate to spend a scan of each of AV proposed.
  
  
  
  
  
• Tools to update BIOS
  
  Menu 1, Page 3. Again attention to the well-used tool of the trade motherboard. These tools allow "flash" your BIOS. I recommend the maximum caution during the use of these tools because any mishandling can cause fatal crash of your motherboard.
  
  
  
  
  
• Different "floppy" boot
  
  Menu 6. Boot disks can be accessed via a console DOS command. This may be useful for example to run a program on a non-bootable CD.
  
  

[Computer_Freak]

Conclusion

This tutorial does not aim to collect everything that can be said about UBCD simply to allow as many people to understand what UBCD and how it can be used. I hope I have answered these two points in a comprehensible way. For depth of the subject and especially on how to use every tool I recommend you to visit the site of UBCD.

One last important thing, if you want to use UBCD for a scan on a virus infected machines you should download the latest version which will be more days at the virus definitions. For all other tools updates are much less important.

I invite all those who have already used the latest version of UBCD to post the detail functioning of this software here in this topic.

[Yogesh]

Need of Ultimate Boot CD

You need the Ultimate Boot CD if you want to:

• Run floppy-based diagnostic tools from CDROM drives. More and more PCs are shipped without floppy drives these days, and it is such a royal pain when you need to run diagnostic tools on them.
  
  
• Free yourself from the slow loading speed of the floppy drive. Even if you do have a floppy drive, it is still much much faster to run your diagnostic tools from the CDROM drive, rather than wait for the tool to load from the floppy drive.
  
  
• Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD. Wouldn't you like to avoid digging into the dusty box to look for the right floppy disk, but simply run them all from a single CD? Then the Ultimate Boot CD is for you!
  
  
• Run Ultimate Boot CD from your USB memory stick. A script on the CD prepares your USB memory stick so that it can be used on newer machines that supports booting from USB devices. You can access the same tools as you would from the CD version.

[Regina]

Excellent tutorial

I just wanted to share my little experience with UBCD, namely my case for the burn speed.

Indeed I have grave once a 48x nothing to do and no way to boot on the CD, so I sounded my luck and there 24x miracle worked. I have followed exactly the same procedure.

Sailing Sailing

Thank you again for good tutorial.

[wazzeledozzle]

Yep, the nice tutorial! One more compliment from me