Spent some time looking for a decent application to create and verify the checksums of all the files that are stored on a drive
For years i used a basic generator/checker that did only one file - very time consuming
After having an experience with a failing backup drive, i was motivated to search for something a bit better
After quite some time i found Corz Checksum, which was good with a right-click context menu item, but it had nags and also generated the hashes with additional characters that did not show up on notepad.
Then i tried MD5 Checksum Verifier which was good, but limited in comparison.
Finally, i tried Fastsum - which is very good.
It handles sub-folders and can save changes to the checksum file after you have altered the contents of the folder.
It also creates entries in the right-click context menu.
i found the best setup was to create checksum files with the extension ".checksum." and to create a checksum file for each folder.
And hence have organized the files into folders, so that any folder can be checked relatively quickly.
Movies usually get their own folder, unless there is a series or collection.
Checksums are a good idea because if you experience any problems with a file, then you can run the checksum verifier and see if the file has being corrupted, and then move on to investigating/eliminating components that may have contributed to the corruption.
They can give you advanced warning of failing components.
i think that many of us have some degree of corruption, and hence need to compare our integrity with the ultimate checksum, which is zero, then make appropriate corrections, or mods, and run the file verifier each time we open a file or run an exe, to make sure that the system is relatively well-balanced and stable, or even running better than before.
If some program is causing problems then it can be thrown into the recycle bin, or re-complied.
For years i used a basic generator/checker that did only one file - very time consuming
After having an experience with a failing backup drive, i was motivated to search for something a bit better
After quite some time i found Corz Checksum, which was good with a right-click context menu item, but it had nags and also generated the hashes with additional characters that did not show up on notepad.
Then i tried MD5 Checksum Verifier which was good, but limited in comparison.
Finally, i tried Fastsum - which is very good.
It handles sub-folders and can save changes to the checksum file after you have altered the contents of the folder.
It also creates entries in the right-click context menu.
i found the best setup was to create checksum files with the extension ".checksum." and to create a checksum file for each folder.
And hence have organized the files into folders, so that any folder can be checked relatively quickly.
Movies usually get their own folder, unless there is a series or collection.
Checksums are a good idea because if you experience any problems with a file, then you can run the checksum verifier and see if the file has being corrupted, and then move on to investigating/eliminating components that may have contributed to the corruption.
They can give you advanced warning of failing components.
i think that many of us have some degree of corruption, and hence need to compare our integrity with the ultimate checksum, which is zero, then make appropriate corrections, or mods, and run the file verifier each time we open a file or run an exe, to make sure that the system is relatively well-balanced and stable, or even running better than before.
If some program is causing problems then it can be thrown into the recycle bin, or re-complied.
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