How to Use MD5
MD5 verification is fully cross-platform compatible due to the fact that it is using universally true principles. When you are using Windows or Linux, or anything else, you can use it to verify your data.
This process can be done either by generating a MD5 checksum yourself or using the one which is included with something you receive (usually through a download).
Windows XP
If you are using Windows and you want to verify your files there are a number of different programs you can use to interact with a MD5 hash. Two free ones which work extremely well are:
FastSum - GUI, can generate MD5
MD5sum - Works through command line, can only verify
With FastSum Windows users can generate and check MD5 checksums for both files and groups of files. The tool is easy to use and intuitive. MD5sum is very basic and can only verify the contents of a file using an MD5 sum which you have already generated.
To use MD5sum
1) Make sure the MD5sum.exe, the MD5 file (usually a .md5 or .txt), and the file being checked are in the same directory
1a) The md5sum.exe file can be placed in c:\winnt\system32 for universal use
2) In Windows, Start > Run > type "cmd"
3) Navigate to the right directory (if you are not there already)
4) Enter the command "md5 -c xxxxxx.md5" (if the md5 is in a .txt that will work also)
5) If the file is correct the message will be "xxxxxx.zip: OK" if it is not the message will read "xxxxxx.zip: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match"
That is all there is to it! There are lots of other programs out there which will work just as well, but both of these are fast and quite painless.