Checking CD files integrity?

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I'm going to be cleaning up my computer a bit and I want to make sure the files I burn are all accurate because I had some problems with my burner a while back. None of these are critical files so I'm not risking anything for those who will ask.

What program can I use to check that all files are same?

 

[Bloodstein]

errm....dunno 'bout software'z out there....but i'm sure this is a juicy assignment dished out by computer science departments in universities across the world.....so try googling it and click through the acedemic webpages 😉

 

[drag]

look for MD5sum.exe

md5sums are commonly used by linux and free software people (who BTW usually have the best of most everything. 😛) for checking ISO images and other big downloads. You download the file, run md5sum against it and if that result matches the number stored in a text file on the server then you know it's pure.


Basicly it treats a file as one big binary number and does some mathmatical forumlas on them to get to a long hex number. Any changes, even if it's just a bit flipped, will create a entirely different number. So if you run md5sum check on a file and then run it on it's copy and both are exactly the same number, then you know you have a 100% correct copy.

 

[Bloodstein]

yep....i believe it's a popular way of verifying files downloaded from the internet are wat they claim to be...

 

[icp]

If you have any basic programming knowledge you can write a simple program that will compare two files byte for byte.

 

[Lint21]

In addition to these suggestions, you can use Nero if you burn with it. Just check the box that says Verify Files After Burn, and it will CRC check the files on the CD compared the the ones on your HD.

 

[rainypickles]

Originally posted by: Lint21
In addition to these suggestions, you can use Nero if you burn with it. Just check the box that says Verify Files After Burn, and it will CRC check the files on the CD compared the the ones on your HD.

sometimes nero says my disc is inaccessible when it tries to verify, even though theh disc is fine. then its nice to have the md5 verification.

 

[Sid59]

i usually include MD5s with critical data i backup. MPC / APE / MP3 i usually include an MD5 for every folder that i burn to disc.

i use Easy MD5 Creator

 

[Mark R]

MD5 is probably the most powerful way, but I don't use it myself.

I usually burn my backups to CD using WinRAR to compress them first - it has a useful 'Authenticity verification' feature which will alert you if the RAR file has been corrupted in any way (as long as you enabled this feature when creating the file), as well as 'recovery records' which will allow you to recover from corrupted files.