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CL-05 : How do I check if my cd/iso is not corrupted?

If you have downloaded an iso image of your favorite distro (or any file), it might serve you to check the md5 checksum (aka md5sum) of your data to see that what you downloaded is exactly the same as what resides in the source server. This only works if the server hosting the file provides the md5sum of the file (or you have acquired a copy from a trusted souce).

To check the md5sum of an image, run the following which will display the md5 checksum of the file yourimage.iso. It is a common trick to just compare the first four and last four characters of the checksum with the checksum from the server.

If you have a file containing the checksum of one or more files, you can invoke the following to automate the checking (assuming that all files to be checked resides in the folder where md5sum is invoked).

NOTE: If you are not using a *nix machine, you still can check the md5sum of your files using a native md5sum utility. Refer to the links below for some suggested md5sum applications.

If you have bought linux installation discs, you can still check the md5sum by issuing the following command (adjust the device descriptor to fit your machine specs) but be wary of this caveat.

Reference Link(s):
http://www.md5summer.org/
http://www.etree.org/md5com.html
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/coasterless.htm
http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Wikilearn/Cd...urning#In_Linux
man md5sum

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CL-05 : How do I check if my cd/iso is not corrupted?

If you want to check the cds md5sum in WINDOWS, here is what you have to do:

1) Download md5sum.zip

2) Unzip the file using a Windows zip utility (WinZip or WinRAR are good ones)

3) Put that program in the same folder as your .iso images

4) Open a cmd (dos) window and cd to the folder containing your isos and the md5sum.exe utility. That could be something like that (you gotta get used to it ;-) )


5) Check the md5sum by typing

and compare the output with what is on the Mandrake Linux download area. Here are the md5sum for MDK 9.1 (Bamboo) for your convenience (lucky boy).

If you don't get the exact same #/letters, the download is currupted. You have to download the image again. Repeat it for each cds!