The Ultimate Boot CD is a convenient and powerful troubleshooting utility for any system admin and computer technician. In case you haven’t heard of it, the “Ultimate Boot CD” is a compilation of reliable hardware diagnostic tools for desktops and laptops. It contains data gathering tools for hardware components, bios unlocking tools, memory diagnostics, hard disk diagnostics and repair, and troubleshooting of compute peripheral devices. The Ultimate Boot CD is a must-have diagnostic CD for any desktop/laptop user. Netbook and small form factor pc users need not worry because it is possible to actually run the Ultimate Boot CD from a flash drive!
The Ultimate Boot CD makes use of free Linux boot components, it allows the CD to operate your computer, and then load each hardware troubleshooting component. A generous contribution to the list of free software is called “PenDriveLinux”
http://www.pendrivelinux.com. Pendrivelinux.com provides a free download that enables us to literally burn almost any Linux Operating System into a bootable and completely functioning USB flash drive! Pendrivelinux is the USB flash drive equivalent of Linux Live CD’s (bootable CD’s that contain a fully working Linux Operating System).
To get started take note of the following requirements:
- A .ISO image of the Ultimate Boot CD
- Download the Universal USB Installer
- A flash drive that is more than the size of the Linux/UltimateBootCD .ISO image
Ultimate Boot CD ISO – Downloading the ISO Image
You can download the latest stable .ISO image of the Ultimate Boot CD from the its official website
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html Ultimate Boot CD – converting the disc to ISO image
If you have a burned disc of the Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD), you will need to copy that disc and convert its contents to a .ISO file. To do this, you can make use of InfraRecorder (
http://portableapps.com/apps/utiliti...order_portable)
Use InfraRecorder to convert the UBCD disc to a single .ISO image
When you have the ISO file of the UBCD, its now time to use the
Universal USB Installer. Download the Universal USB Installer from the website
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/univers...easy-as-1-2-3/
Upon running the file, you are asked to select the type of Linux distribution, and then locate the Linux ISO image.
- In this case, we are choose the Ultimate Boot CD distribution.
- We select the location of the downloaded/burned .ISO image of UBCD
- We select the drive letter of the flash drive that we would like to convert to a bootable drive of UBCD
Verify that all settings are correct. Double-check that you have selected the correct drive letter of your flash drive.
Then click the
Create button
You are given a last warning to double-check that the settings you made are correct.
Click
Yes.
The Universal USB Installer begins to convert your flash drive into a bootable Linux pendrive. Allow this process to complete.
You are notified when the bootable flash drive has been successfully created.
Its now time to test your bootable flash drive! Restart your computer, and choose to boot from the USB flash disk in your bios settings.
Depending on your motherboard brand and bios software, the picture above can be used as guide for setting your boot settings to the USB flash drive.
Whilst having a disc copy of the UBCD is ideal for troubleshooting most computers, it may be a good idea for you to convert older and unused flash drives to a bootable Ultimate Boot CD. This would come in handy for possible future troubleshooting of netbooks or computers without cd drives.
