Thanks for Those words of advice Abarbarian. Well I have got my knickers in a twist over Zorin my inexperience and understanding of Linux I think and not the software its self. Firstly I downloaded Zorin off the net and although they give you the procedure but it is not self explanatory to a non Linux person for example:-

Once the .7z file has downloaded please check the md5sum to make sure that the file is not corrupted. The correctmdsum is ------------------
a) If you use Windows. Check the mmd5sum with Nullnver's WinMD5Sum

What is that all about we are Windows users and are spoon fed, Ok I downloaded the Nullnver's WinMD5sum but what do I do with it. At that point came to a full stop and just ran the download as to be perfectly honest the instructions were beyond my capability as a home user and self taught Windows user. Any way I ran the download but it was corrupt and some of it ran and some of it did not. I would have downloaded from a DVD but Zorin have run out of run out of the preinstalled DVD's. The trouble is that when I rebooted the drive would not boot so now I have a 1500GB hard drive I cannot use.
Luckly I had Windows on a different drive so I have re installed that. BUT I haven given up I have ordered a DVD with Zorin 9 LTS from Ebay and will have another go when it arrives. Any help from any one will be gratefully received but please in very simple terms as I am only a spoon-fed Windows amateur.

The MD5SUM is just a value that unique identifies the file. That procedure is mostly to insure that you got the whole file and it didn't get modified in transit.

You can think at md5sum as a fingerprint of a file. Actually md5sum is the name of the program that calculates a particular type of fingerprint (the correct term being "MD5 hash" and more generically "checksum"). Just for your information, there are other types of checksum but MD5 is one of the most commonly used, together with SHA1.

Given its nature the fact that two different files may have the same checksum is unlikely. For this reason the checksum of a file can be used to uniquely identify the file itself.

Software providers (especially those one of free and open source software) give us the checksum of their files, so that after having downloaded them we can verify if the copy of the file, that now resides on our disk, matches exactly the original file they have made available. In other word they want to be sure the file has not been corrupted (damaged) during the transfer (as mentioned in the previous post).

I was not aware of the md5sum software you've cited (on windows I've always used a command line tool from the command prompt) but if I'm correct in understanding what software it is, you can unzip and run it (no need for installation), use the "browse" button to select the file downloaded on your pc, copy/paste the checksum from the Zorin OS site into the text box near the "verify" button and press "verify" itself. If the response is positive (the newly computed checksum is identical to that one provided by the Zorin OS people) your file has been downloaded correctly and you're ready to install.

That's it (for now)!

There should be some documentation on how to use this windows software somewhere. On Linux you would: md5sum nameof.iso (replace nameof.iso with the actual name)

Why not buy directly from Zorin rather than Ebay?

Ebay might not be the best place to get this type of DVD. If you go to www.distrowatch.com and click the page for zorin, you will see a link "where to buy". That is a company that seems to have a good reputation with linux copies (based on previous posters here, I have never personally used them).

Bootneck, some of your problem my be the fault of your ISP. In my case I tried to download Zorin core 8 from three different location. Each was corrupted in transit. So I end up buying a DVD off the INTERNET. I install Zorin on an old computer. All of this took place over a couple of months. During that time I played around with Ubuntu 14.04. Which I crashed and re-installed four times. By the forth time I had a pretty good handle on Ubuntu. By the time I installed Zorin, I found it to be boring and to much like Windows. So the old computer is in the corner and I have Ubuntu installed on my new HP Pavilion desk top. If you are a person that likes to learn (play around with Linux) then forget about Zorin and jump with both feet into Ubuntu. Good Luck!

Hi,

You can use the following too check & burn the image of your downloaded ISO image file. Be sure to look at the md5sum references below. Even though most burn software does a check of the burnt ISO when enabled, I suggest that you look at; CdromMd5sumsAfterBurning
EDIT:You can get MS based wget utilities;Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

1 members found this post helpful.

Windows obviously has a stake in preventing you from successfully getting a linux iso to download and install. Not that they actively try to prevent you from accomplishing the goal, but it would be in their best interest to do so. You might find an easier time getting a smaller iso'd linux and using wget to download the linux iso in question under linux. Using "wget -c <URL>" is a wonderous thing for those with questionable at best connections to the internet.

md5sum is a quick, easy way to check the integrity of your downloaded OS image.You might get one at the same site you downloaded from or in your favorite search engine type, for example, "zorin 10 core md5sum. Copy and paste the characters thus obtained into a text editor and save as zorin10core.md5sum in your downloads directory. When your download is complete open a terminal in your downloads dictory with a right-click there in a blank area and at the prompt type "md5sum [name of downloaded file] <enter>. If you use K3b for burning DVDs it generates an md5sum, which you can compare to the one obtained from the download site or through your search. Checking can help keep you from burning a coaster. Hope this helps. The file names you use thus should be identical to the name of the downloaded file, including underscores and dashes.