Quote Originally Posted by Pappey
MD5summer v1.2.0.11
Windows MD5 - Sum Generator

http://www.md5summer.org


I'm probably not using it correctly then. So I'm an idiot.

I thought I'd like to try this KNOPPIX thing, but it may be beyond me.

So say ... I want to burn an image cd ... where would I download it and how would I conduct error checking on the download to ensure its correct?

Easy now ... put it in layman's terms (baby steps).
Since you were stressing that you had burnt at low speed, I had thought that you had already read the downloading faq. But if not, follow the documentation link near the top of this page to find the wiki, and read the downloading faq (there should be a link on the main page that get you to it). This will answer you questions about how to download (stressing BitTorrent) and various programs to check the md5.

md5summer is fine for checking the ISO. User interface isn't perfect, but I've seen worse. Not sure why, but programmers who do md5 code seem to shy away from the normal Windows "standards". To check the md5 you should have a file that already contains the actual known md5 value for the file or file in question. With md5summer there are two options:

1) if the file that you have ends in .md5 then put it in the same directory as the ISO file and start md5summer. Then navigate to that folder in md5summer and select the "verify sums" button at the bottom, check the ISO (and/or any other file listed in the .md5 file). As a way to simplify this, if you associate the md5 extension with md5summer or use the "open with" option and select md5summer, you can just click on the .md5 file and md5summer will start and begin the md5 calculation.

2)if the file that you have does not have an md5 extension but rather a .txt extension or some other extension, then it might not be in the exact form that md5summer needs to use. However, it will be a text file that you can open in any editor, such as notepad. (An md5 file is actually a text file, so you could use this approach with an md5 file too.) In this case, open md5summer and navigate to the folder that the ISO is in. Click the "create sums" button at the bottom of the page. Another window will open that shows all of the files in the folder. Click on the ISO file and then push the "Add" button. Then click OK. The MD5 wiil be calculated, and another window will then open to let you save the value as an md5 file. You might as well save the value, but you can see it and write it down in the window already open. It will be a string of 32 hexadecimal characters. Manually compare this string to the pre-calculated md5 checksum that you downloaded. If they match then the file is exactly the same as what was originally posted. If they don't then the file is corrupt and burning it to disc will result in a coaster.

3) if you don't have a downloaded md5 file to do this test against then there is no point in computing a md5 file for your ISO. I did say that there were two options, not 3.

The Get Knoppix link near the top of this page will give you a link to the torrents for Knoppix. When your current ISO turns out to be corrupt, consider installing any of the popular bittorrent clients, configure your router to allow the bittorrent ports to reach your computer (you are using a router, are you not?), and then download one of the small torrent files and use that to have your torrent client get you the Knoppix package (which includes the ISO, an md5 file and a few other handy files). If you want an English version of Knoppix, be sure to get a version with EN in the name, not DE.