Hardware Testing

Does anyone know of a good hardware tester that can run independent of an OS, something like a burn in tool. I do know about UBCD, but I am looking for something a user can burn to a CD, stick into the drive, and boot to the CD, and just lets it do its thing. Testing as much as possible. Not so much to see how much it would take to crash the system, but as a good basic hardware test to make sure the hardware is working properly, and is not contributing to the system problems.

Something a new user could do without having to know much.

Thanks for any idea's, tips or hints or links.

 

I have used DOS programs with a controlling batch file on homemade bootable volumes to do similar things. Alternatively, you could use a slim Linux distro. For DOS, get the system files from a boot disk (including hidden/system files) and the programs to run with their supporting files, and make a batch file to control everything. Some programs can be a little tricky if they require installation or have some other complication. Make an iso file, and burn it, choosing the bootable option. You should probably look at CD-burning tutorials before trying this, as this is just a quick summary of a very tricky operation. Here are some links:

On MajorGeeks:
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=59081
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=77630
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=175905
I recommend reading those 3 topics, even though the title questions are different, they touch on similar issues.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ has lots of tools on it, if you want a pre-made one.

I also found a tutorial on Google: http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/

 

Thanks for the responses, but they are not really what I was hoping to find.

If it were for me, both solutions would work. But I am trying to find something that a user can burn to a CD, stick it in and run without trying to build or configure the file before burning. Some of the people I help have a hard enough time trying to burn an ISO file to a CD even with plain instructions. Something that is easily burnable and easily usable would make life much easier. I had made a disk using BartPE and actually contacted the owner to see if I could make the image available to others, and they refused, even if I had gotten permission from Microsoft to do it.