Ultimate Boot CD (DOS or Linux)

The Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD) is a huge collection of system diagnostic and recovery tools that are conveniently arranged on a single CD. These tools work on any Intel-compatible PC. Since the CD is bootable, it doesn’t matter what operating system(s) may be installed on the PC. Indeed, UBCD comes in handiest when the normal operating system refuses to boot.

You Name It: The current version of UBCD contains 121 tools, divided into 21 categories, as follows. Each tool runs in isolation, as if it were the only tool on the CD (just as if the tool were on its own floppy disk). A master menu program boots up first. It lets you choose the tool you want to run, and then it boots that tool. (To run another tool, simply reboot and go through the main menu again.)

CPU Tests
Memory Tests
Peripherals Tools
CPU Information
System Information
Benchmark Tools
BIOS Tools
Hard Disk Installation Tools
Hard Disk Diagnostic Tools
Hard Disk Device Management Tools
Hard Disk Wiping Tools
Hard Disk Cloning Tools
Hard Disk Low-Level Editing Tools
Partition Tools
Boot Managers
File Tools
NTFS Tools
Anti-Virus/Malware Tools
Network Tools
DOS Boot Disks
Linux Boot Disks
Downloading: The UBCD is free for the taking. It’s available on a number of different mirror sites. (See link, below.)

Burning the CD: The UBCD comes in the form of an ISO image (compressed as either a zip file, or a self extracting archive). You need CD burning software that can create a CD based on an ISO image. If you don’t know what an ISO image is, or how to burn it to a CD, don’t worry. The second question in the UBCD FAQ (http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/faq.html) tells you exactly how to do it using CD burning software that you may already have installed, or if not, gives step-by-step instructions for using some of the freeware programs that are available

BIOS Settings: In order to boot from a CD, your BIOS configuration must be set to allow it. The UBCD FAQ has this topic covered as well. Newer machines also allow booting from a USB device, which is an option here.

Ultimate Boot CD
Latest Version: 4.1.1
Platform: Any Intel-compatible PC
Author: Charles Appel
Price: Free (FOSS)
Download Link: ubcd.sourceforge.net (choose a mirror site from there).

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