Ultimate Boot CD

Floppy-based diagnostics tools did their job well back in the day and they are still an effective solution for all sorts of computer malfunctions. The problem is that no one uses floppy discs anymore, but you can still benefit from those tools with Ultimate Boot CD. It is a large collection of diagnostics tools, which can be booted from a CD or USB drive. Even if you still have a working floppy drive, you will find it more convenient to run any tool from the same disc, rather than switching between countless floppies.

As previously suggested, Ultimate Boot CD itself is not a program, but a collection of programs. The vast majority of the included tools are freeware or free for personal use. The package comes as a virtual image file, which you can burn on a disc. It is also possible to use the file to create a bootable USB drive.

When the bootable CD or USB drive is ready, you just need to leave it in your computer and reboot it. Instead of starting Windows, the computer will display a text-based menu, in which you can navigate through various tool categories. Ultimate Boot CD provides many diagnostics tools for BIOS, for the CPU, memory, hard drive, peripherals and for the system itself. All you have to do is navigate through the menus, select the tool you need and hit the Enter key, but in certain cases, you may need some advanced knowledge.

Ultimate Boot CD includes a revised version of FreeDOS, from which you can run many other DOS tools. Besides a graphical user interface or mouse support, the included FreeDOS comes with Volkov Commander as well, a variation of the popular Norton Commander. While in FreeDOS, you can find the same diagnostics tools, mentioned above, but you can also find other drivers and system tools. Furthermore, Ultimate Boot CD has received a few new features, since its 5th version, like the Linux-based Parted Magic and support for syslinux or isolinux and grub4dos. This gives you the possibility of running Ultimate Boot CD on many other machines.