[lug] Hardware/Software Puzzle

[David L. Anselmi]

Paul E Condon wrote:
> md5sum /dev/hdd 
> and 
> md5sum /dev/hdc
> 
> This seems to work for CDs that have been manufactured by publishers.
> For software CDs from, e.g. Intuit, I always get the same md5sum on
> both reader and reader/writer. But for burnable CDs, I always get an
> I/O error on the reader/writer and I get a different md5sum on every
> re-read on the reader.

Yeah, it's a Linux thing.  Read this:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/coasterless.htm

If you use dd to read only the sectors actually part of the CD you 
should get reliable checksums.

Dave