How to Find/Check the CRC ?
What is CRC ?
Cyclic Redundancy Checking is a method of checking for errors in data that has been transmitted.
The cyclic redundancy check, or CRC, is a technique for detecting errors in digital
data, but not for making corrections when errors are detected. [More]
How to find the CRC value?
There are lot of tools to find a CRC value. I use Microsoft CRC Verification Utility (7KB), which is available in the Tools and Resources section of MSDN Subscribers’ Download.
Why we need to check the CRC ?
We mostly download Gigabytes sized files frequently. Few weeks back I downloaded the 64bit Version of Windows Server 2008 R2 beta from the MSDN Download, and the size of the iso file is around 4.5GB.
Most of the time the downloaded file will not have any problem. Rarely, when we try to open,install or burn the downloaded file, we might end up with a message saying its corrupted. In that case, we need to check the CRC value published by the source of the file, in my case its MSDN Subscribers’ Download section. MSDN Subscribers’ Download section always shows the CRC Value of each and every file they allow you to download, even if its 1MB or less.
After burning the iso file, when the Windows Server 2008 R2 beta installation was half the way, I got this error, some .cab missing in the Source media. Then I checked the CRC of the file in MSDN and the file in my Download. Both were same.
Where is the problem then ?
Yes, its with the DVD. I checked the CRC of the DVD, well as expected it was wrong.
Then I burnt the same iso file with a Rewritable DVD, which then had the same CRC.
