When you download an iso file for an operating system you are often encouraged to verify it by doing a checksum on it with sha and compare the result with the result provided on the website you downloaded the iso file from. I believe this is 1. For security reasons as someone might have provided you with a fake copy of the OS and 2. to check that the download of the file did not introduce any errors.
Almost every time I try and install an operating system it fails and I only get it working after days of troubleshooting and some very helpful advice from people who know more about it than I do. It also involves using quite a few disks and, more expensively, USB sticks as I try more and more approaches to the problem. Generally when it finally works I have no idea why it didn't work on all the previous attempts.
I am normally left wondering whether any of the failed cases could have been due to errors introduced into the OS when I burnt it to disk or USB. Is this ridiculously unlikely? If it is likely then would it be possible to do a checksum on the OS after it has been burnt to disk or USB and compare it to the result from someone who actually got the thing to work?
