how to check if the download from the COPA-DATA homepage is correct?
For users of the COPA-DATA homepage who can download .ISO files, it is recommended to check the .ISO file after the download to see if it has been downloaded correctly.
This is possible by building the MD5 checksum (hash value) and comparing the generated checksum to checksum that is published in the download area for the corresponding .ISO file.
A MD5 (HEX) checksum, or hash value, is like a digital fingerprint of a file. It is highly unlikely (although technically not impossible) that a second non-identical file has the exact same MD5 checksum.
A MD5 checksum is often used to detect manipulations to original files, but is also commonly used to verify (large) file downloads and check for possible data errors that occurred during the download. If the checksum of the downloaded file is identical with the published checksum for this file, you can safely assume that the download was successful without any data errors.
There are many tools that can build a MD5 checksum for one or more files, some of them integrate in Windows Explorer. One example that can be used to build MD5 (and other) checksums is FileViewer++.
Step 1: download FileVerifier++ here
Step 2: install and start FileVerifier++, set the default algorithm to "MD5", and restart FileVerifier++
Step4: after the generation of the MD5 checksum, the result is shown. (takes approx. 1 minute for a 4 GB .iso file)
This is a migrated post! Originally posted on 19.10.2010 by user markclemens. Please be aware that information can be outdated.