Print
Looks like your system is on the fritz again -- it refuses to boot your operating system. What do you do now? You can take it a tech shop and have "experts" investigate the problem, but that a costly option. Even if your computer can’t load Windows, there is still a way to fix boot problems without reformatting. With the right boot CD, you can perform your own troubleshooting dianosis the cure whatever ails your PC. Our guide will show you how to make a powerful boot disk that'll let you do more than just access a DOS prompt. You'll be able to run processor stress tests, memory scans, edit partitions, and even extract hard drive data.
The Ultimate Boot CD features software that can do everything from run a CPU stress test to scanning your hard drive for bad sectors. All of the included utilities are easy to use and should be in every computer technician’s toolkit. You can individually download all the software that is on the UBCD, but this package saves time by including all the software on one convenient CD.
Go here to download the Ultimate Boot CD image. You can download from any of the mirrors listed, but if possible, we recommend you grab the compressed zip image so the download is smaller. They all produce the same ISO file, so it doesn’t matter what type you download.
After the download is complete, extract the archive and then burn the ISO to a blank CD. You need to burn it as an ISO so your computer can boot from it. Both CDBurnerXP and IMGBurn can do this and are free.
Once the disk is burned, start up the faulty computer and boot from this disk. You may have to change the boot order in order to boot from your optical drive. Press F8 (sometimes F10, depending on the motherboard) to get to your system’s boot menu.
When you are prompted, press Enter to boot off of the disk.
You will be given a main menu that serves as an interface to all the tools. You will only use the first six options. Here is a quick run-down of all the sections on the Ultimate Boot CD.
The Ultimate Boot CD is primarily designed for people that are having serious non-OS-related problems with their computer, including faulty hardware. Excluding the operating system makes it easier on you to troubleshoot an error.
Memtest86+ for example, found under Mainboard tools and then Memory Tests, is useful if you are having problems that you don’t think is software related. The program gives you a general idea of whether your RAM is operating as it should.
The hard drive diagnostic utilities found under Hard Disk Tools, are useful when you are having disk corruption issues or if you are just having strange problems and already got the all-clear from Memtest86+. Every major hard drive manufacturer has diagnostic software included on the Ultimate Boot CD. These programs will scan for errors and let you know if it is time to RMA or throw away that hard drive.
The Ultimate Boot CD contains many other utilities to diagnose computer problems, including stress testing applications, partition editors, boot managers and many other software diagnostic programs.
As the name implies, the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows is specifically designed to work with Windows. This means most of the utilities on this CD are native to Windows and can only be used on a Windows-based system.
The Ultimate Boot CD for Windows uses Windows XP files and Bart PE to boot. Since it uses Windows XP files, this boot CD is not distributed as an ISO since it would break Microsoft’s EULA. Instead, you must manually build the project files.
Click here to download the project file. It is a large file so make sure you download this file with a broadband Internet connection.
Put your Windows XP CD into your optical drive. Create a new folder on the desktop and name it XPCD. Explore the CD, but do not run the disk, and drag all the files on the CD into this new folder. This will create a copy of all the XP files that are on the CD. If you do not do this, your CD will not be able to boot and the build process will fail.
Double-click on the UBCD4Win file. An installation wizard will display that lets you change the extraction location. Keep all the default settings to minimize the chance of problems. The program will extract the files to the C:\UBCD4Win directory.
After the program is done extracting, it will want you to do a MD5 Hash verification to make sure the file is not corrupt, click Yes to verify the file.
Comments are closed on this article
grabekmj333
September 05, 2009 at 5:17pm
I have built the .iso 3 times now and the .iso that keep being created is over 700mb. Is there anything I can to to shrink this .iso. I am using a windows XP pro CD with SP3. Or do I just need to put this on a DVD. Looking for any advise.
PhoneyVirus
September 04, 2009 at 9:18pm
Every Powerusers should have a copy of this no matter what nice work thanks.
andeshelp
June 10, 2009 at 10:36am
This is a first for me. I know what has infected a clients computer, MS AntiVirus 2009. Normally I could use the Ultimate Boot CD and then copy a new ntusr.dat file to the C:\ drive. Then run MalWare Bytes to clean it up.
However, I can't even get the Ultimate Boot Disk to boot the computer. I keep getting the "Blue Screen of Death" telling me that the computer may be infected and I need to run either a Virus Cleaner or "chkdsk /f".
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
kopomeroy
August 07, 2009 at 11:38am
Can an upgrade Windows XP disk be used instead of the original XP disk? My computer came loaded withWindows and I then upgraded it. Is the only way to then get an "original" to purchase one?
If you can't change the direction of the wind,
Change the set of your sails.
Markd1015
April 13, 2009 at 6:42am
Can this be set up to work on a machine that has RAID? My primary drive is set up as RAID 0.
TheeScooter
April 03, 2009 at 12:17pm
Downloaded all files, verified files, and when I try to run it I get a " Program requires Administrator priveleges " notification and the program closes. I'm running this on my Vaio, using Vista, and I am the administrator. Do I have to run this in XP compatible or what???????
monarch1st
February 28, 2009 at 1:46pm
I tried to create the ubcd for windows, and it told me I needed sp1 or later. Apparently my win xp cd is bare bones xp home.
How do I upgrade my files in the ubcd4win folder?
Urvile
March 01, 2009 at 5:19pm
for instruction on slipstreaming the MS Service packs with your xp installation cd (which is a good idea in its own right, as well as being necessary to build the UBCD4Win cd, see http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/slipstream_windows_xp_sp3_and_vista_sp1
"If I woke up looking like that, I would just run toward the nearest living thing a kill it." - Master Shake
majorsuave
February 26, 2009 at 6:36am
Sounds like a nice toolset. How about a Ultimate Boot USB drive installation process?
While I liked the idea of putting stuff on CDs for a decade, this is now 2009 and, I could see only good thingscoming from having tools on a media I can update.
Urvile
March 01, 2009 at 5:25pm
http://ubcd4win.com/forum/index.php?s=3af2a2445c1bd356274f8624685ee34e&showtopic=9630
"If I woke up looking like that, I would just run toward the nearest living thing a kill it." - Master Shake
hackman2007
February 26, 2009 at 7:52am
That would be awesome, but unfortunately not all USB flash drives are bootable. Plus the fact that not all computers can boot from USB, even modern ones for example.
As an example, my laptop cannot boot from USB. Granted this is wasn't built by me, so Toshiba probably did something to make it not boot from USB.
majorsuave
February 26, 2009 at 8:40am
If I'm not talking all PCs but the ones I'm interested in, which happen to be USB bootable, I would appreciate it.
Urvile
March 10, 2009 at 10:40pm
Most newer PC's and mobo's will support booting from usb, especially if the bios has been kept up to date. The link to the UBCD4WIN forums I posted earlier has good info, and info about what drives have been confirmed to work or not work can be found there too. There's actually a few different methods. so just poke around there for a while.
"If I woke up looking like that, I would just run toward the nearest living thing and kill it." - Master Shake
roydk
February 25, 2009 at 6:29pm
I downloaded the Ultimate boot cd for win AND IT WAS LOADED WITH TROJANS!!!!!!!!!!DAM IT GUYS!!!!THANKS A LOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hackman2007
February 25, 2009 at 6:42pm
Actually, it's not loaded with Trojans or any other type of malware.
What this is, is a false positive since some of the applications included on the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows are VNC related applications which are falsely detected as malware since they can be used for nefarious purposes.
If you don't believe me, look at the author's page: http://www.ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#false
It is a well known problem.
No need to worry, your computer is not infected, unless it was infected beforehand.
