I still cry the day I broke my brand new Samsung Galaxy S while installing a custom ROM on it. I had to wait a few weeks to fix it!! It’s not a newbie to install custom ROMs.. I know all about it (you know as a writer for GT). But I was careless and that was the cause of the problem.
Speaking of my carelessness, I downloaded the update file from a file hosting service as a free user using the default browser. I was so excited about flashing a new ROM without realizing that the download was interrupted midway, which caused an installation failure that resulted in the ROM being bricked.
The rest of the time, when my phone was at the service center, I kept cursing myself for not checking the file’s MD5 checksum before installing.
If you’re wondering what an MD5 checksum is and how it can help me, read on.
MD5 . checksum explanation
MD5 checksum, short for Message-Digest, is an algorithm used in the fields of cryptography and data security. Don’t worry, instead of talking about all that confusing stuff, we’ll get straight to the point.
If I explain it to you in simple words, you can think of MD5 as an alphanumeric string associated with every single file. Just as no two people can have identical fingerprints, in the same way no two different files (locally or on a network or on the World Wide Web) can have the same MD5 checksum.
Now, just as by matching a fingerprint we can confirm the identity of an individual, we can confirm the authenticity of an individual file by matching the MD5 checksum. The best part is that you don’t need a forensic degree to do so.
So let’s see how we can find the MD5 checksum for a given file.
Check MD5 Checksum
When you download important files from the Internet – such as a new operating system or firmware for your smartphone – most websites provide an MD5 checksum in the download details to help you cross-check the file’s identity before continuing with the installation.
We will use a simple freeware called Test MD5 (Softpedia Link) to check the file. The tool is portable so you can unzip and run the executable after downloading it. The tool’s interface is self-explanatory. There is a browse button to browse for the file you want to know MD5. Calculate button to calculate checksum of specific file and finally two textboxes, one of which will generate generated checksum and other you can paste checksum of same file from a legitimate source and check.
That’s all, if both checksums match, you’re good to go.
My judgment
Prevention is better than cure, and in the case of MD5 checksum verification, it takes almost no seconds. So don’t regret it later like I did after a corrupted file caused all kinds of problems for me. Check the MD5 Checksum to verify the download (whenever you can determine the original MD5 Checksum).
Image credits: Jack Spades
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
