How do you make a bootable memtest86 CD?

[cyberknight]

Can someone give me a run down on how to create a bootable memtest86 CD?

Does it matter if you use a CD-R or CD-RW?

Which files am I suppose to have on the CD? I put all the files in these two downloads on a CD and it still doesn't work. (unzipped of course)

http://www.memtest86.com/#download0
Download - Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.2 installable from Windows and DOS
Download - Memtest86 v3.2 ISO image (zip)

Am I suppose to do something extra that I am aware of? I've ran memtest off of Floppy before and I just remembering putting the files on a disk and just rebooting and that was it.

 

[AtlantaBob]

Ah, with CD's it a litle bit harder. I would say that you need to unzip the ISO image (Raw data that needs to be written to a CD) and then burn that to a CD using your favorite CD burning software (Nero or the like) that supports burning ISO images. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that you can do that with just Windows XP....

 

[Jeeper94]

Sorry for the double post, i'm an idiot sometimes. :roll:

 

[Jeeper94]

Just go burn the Ultimate Boot CD. :thumbsup:

 

[cyberknight]

ehh... would me running Prime95 Blend Test and Super PI 32M simultaneously a good indictator of the stability of my memory?

 

[narcotic]

Originally posted by: Jeeper94
Just go burn the Ultimate Boot CD. :thumbsup:

Best f*cking link I saw in a while! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[Fike]

That is very excellent! I have been trying to figure out how to make a bootable disk for Western Digital's Data Lifeguard tools, and this little jobby will do just the trick.

 

[NoSpeed]

Might I suggest you start with the new and improved Memtest86+ 1.55 located at http://www.memtest.org/! It is based on the well-known original memtest86 written by Chris Brady located at the web site listed by the OP. The old Memtest86 3.2 does not have the more recent updates provided by Memtest86+ 1.55, which was just released today. Additionally, pre-compiled bootable ISO files are provided, which should make creating your CD a snap. Here is the procedure from the ReadMe file:

+ Run from CD

Memtest86+ is directly executable by any modern x86 compatible machine, by
writing the iso to a CD one can boot from the CD to run memtest.

Simply download the appropriate package, the Download - Pre-Compiled
Bootable ISO (.gz) for Linux users and the Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO
(.zip) for Windows users.

For Windows, unzip the package into a directory like C:\memtest. You will
now see a file called memtest86+-1.xx.iso in this directory. You will need
to burn this file to a CD with a CD recording program. Do note however
that you should not make a regular data CD on which you for instance write
your text documents and holiday photographs. Instead the iso file is a so
called image of a CD, it is a direct copy of a CD. Your CD recording
program will most likely have a feature called burn image or something to
that effect which you should use to burn the CD.

For linux, unzip the package into your home directory. and execute
'cdrecord dev=<your burner> ~/memtest86+-1.xx.iso' where you replace <your
burner> with the scsi address of your CD burner and replace 1.xx with the
correct version number of the memtest86+ your downloaded.

When the burning completed your drive will most likely have ejected the CD
and you should have a bootable memtest86+ CD. To run the test directly
reinsert the CD and reboot your machine.

Your machine should now boot from the CD, display the word Loading folowed
by a series of periods and then show a screen much like the screenshots on
the memtest86+ web page. The test is automatically started.

If your machine simply boots back into Windows/Linux you will most likely
have to configure your BIOS to attempt to boot from CD-ROM drive on
startup, refer to your computer's/mainboard's manual how to do this.

When you are done testing simply remove the CD and reset your computer, if
ever you want to execure the test again simply reinsert the CD and
reboot/start your computer.

 

[cyberknight]

Once I burn an ISO to a CD, is it permanently stamped and forever useless in other functions except memtest? Like what if I did it to a CD-RW?

 

[imported_fatal]

Originally posted by: cyberknight
Once I burn an ISO to a CD, is it permanently stamped and forever useless in other functions except memtest? Like what if I did it to a CD-RW?

A CD is like 10 cents, I wouldn't sweat it You can save it for later use

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: fatal

Originally posted by: cyberknight
Once I burn an ISO to a CD, is it permanently stamped and forever useless in other functions except memtest? Like what if I did it to a CD-RW?

A CD is like 10 cents, I wouldn't sweat it You can save it for later use

And yes, you can burn it to a CD-RW and then erase it later if you're that cheap.

 

[Navid]

You can use a CD/RW.

You had better use memtest for checking the RAM stability.

Using prime95 is good for checking the stability of the CPU, not the RAM.

Also, when you are in windows, some of the RAM is reserved and never accessed by prime, or any other program that you can run from windows. memtest, exercises a larger memory area. So, that is another reason for using memtest for checking the stability of your RAM.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Navid
You can use a CD/RW.

You had better use memtest for checking the RAM stability.

Using prime95 is good for checking the stability of the CPU, not the RAM.

Also, when you are in windows, some of the RAM is reserved and never accessed by prime, or any other program that you can run from windows. memtest, exercises a larger memory area. So, that is another reason for using memtest for checking the stability of your RAM.

OTOH, I've seen setups where memtest86 passed without a problem, but Prime95 died within minutes on the "Blend" torture test (which uses lots of RAM) and yet could pass the CPU-intensive tests without a problem. So clearly Prime95 does test RAM (at least if you use the right settings).

Use both. Memtest86 is exhaustive but not particularly stressful to the memory controller/CPU/chipset -- it's *great* for finding truly faulty RAM, but not always the best choice for validating stability, because it puts very little load on the CPU/MB/chipset, and tends to do mostly sequential memory operations (which use the memory controller differently). Prime95 is not as exhaustive, but much more stressful overall for the CPU/RAM, and can make marginal overclocks fail when memtest86 won't. Testing with a CPU/GPU-intensive bench like Aquamark or 3DMark01 is also a good idea, since it will push your CPU, RAM, and GPU all at the same time (and puts more stress on your PSU than either Prime95 or memtest86).

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, Most of the burner programs are capable of burning a bootable CD. Test it on a RW first and when you get it right copy to a R disk. If you want to do anthing fancy you will have to write an Autoexec.Bat file for Nero or Roxio/Adaptech. Not sure about others. Jim