Im writing to you from KNOPPIX 6.2 CD after leaving a pile of bad CDs in the trash. Id determined after being unable to use a Flash boot (BIOS doesnt support USB boot on this old computer) that I had no choice but to solve the problem, if it meant wasting a whole box of discs, then so be it. One MUST follow the process of download, verify with MD5 before proceeding. MUST. not an option. Then one must realize that the goal is NOT to make a CD to run Knoppix, it is a job of making a (more or less "copy") of a master disk somewhere else. That "somewhere else" is on a mirror server somewhere distant. Therein lies the answer. The problem is that the local disk is made in Windows, known for every kind of software failure known to man, which is why many of us want Linux in the first place - IT WORKS! As others have, I have been getting CDs burned that result in a startup that hangs with no option but a hard re-boot. The disk just goes quiet, indicating it cant read anything. Using testCD proved it. There was data missing, therefore it could not proceed to load. So the question, hardware, software or both? The hardware is generally stable, Windows is known to crash left and right, so it is suspect. But what about Windows? I tried options in the CD burner program, tried running the CD drive tests to verify transfer rate, tried a slow speed burn (which makes NO sense,,,) to no avail. I removed the CD drive from the computer and re-seated the electrical connector several times. Connectors are a common failure source. No luck. So, its not a CD recorder problem. I'd noticed between downloading the Knoppix ISOs and manipulating files in Windows, that Windows was not working correctly - network connection errors and file system errors in Explorer. Explorer... known to be a source of an almost infinite number of failures in Windows, so much so that some have written their own file explorer programs. So: 1.) Download the ISO 2.) Download the corresponding MD5 file 3.) download the program to verify the ISO against the MD5 4.) Run provram and ISO verified (good source file) 5.) placed the CD burner software temporary directory in C root drive to ensure enough file system and drive space (may not hurt to defragment the hard drive) 6.) Set the CD burner to "burn single track at once" although another user has noted this should not matter for a data disk, I did it anyway Then the magic -bullet 7.) TURN OFF WINDOWS EXPLORER. From Windows Explorer, hit Ctrl-Alt Del (Windows users are familiar with that key combination!) , close all processes related to Explorer, then Run the CD burner software and burned at high speed. The CD worked the first time, flawlessly. Im using it right now. The problem was not an old computer, or a bad CD drive, it was Windows Explorer, it was interfering with the burn process.