can not get bootable cd. have tried all i can think of. i downloaded from mandriva site. burned cd. would not boot. saw a forum message that said cd cannot be 1 file but needs to be a directory so i opened file and put on cd as individual files still no luck. please help I AM SICK OF MICROSOFT AND THE WAY THEY ONLY LET YOU INSTALL O.S. ON 1 @#$%%^ CPU. ARENT THEY RICH ENOUGH. please help i need info on an install on a clean harddrive and how to get a cd to be a bootable to install!!! thanx for all help!

To make the cd bootable you need to burn the ISO file you downloaded as as an IMAGE and not as data files. Most CD burning software give you this option. In Nero for example if you look in Recorder on your toolbar you will see an option to "Burn Image". This will automatically burn all the neccessary files on to the CD/DVD and make it bootable.

Imgburn works well & it's free.

thanks for the replies. that was my problem. was using xp burning software. found isorecorder. although now mandriva is booting but gets stuck before live cd finishes booting and starts scrolling message that starts with "SQUASHFS error". any advice would be helpful. thanks

First, check the md5sum for the iso image to make sure it is not corrupted. To make this check, google for 'md5sum windows'. The first response I get is etree.org . From there you can download md5sum.exe to a known location on your computer's hard drive (best to save it to the same directory containing the iso image file). Next download the md5sum file for the iso image. you can get it from the same location you got the iso image (it contains the expected md5sum value). Open a DOS window (Start > run 'cmd' {no quotes}). Switch to the directory containing the iso image and md5sum.exe. Run 'md5sum <iso-image-file.iso>' (replace <iso-image-file.iso> with the iso image files file name). md5sum.exe may take some time to run depending on the speed of your computer. When it completes, compare the output from md5sum.exe with the value in the md5sum file you just downloaded. If they do not match, the image file is corrupted. Delete it and download the file again (this time using an ftp client such as filezilla or smart ftp). Check the md5sum again to make sure the file is not corrupted. If the md5sum is good, then try burning the image to a CD again, but at a slower speed than you used the first time. I usually burn iso images at about half the speed my burner (or the CD) is rated for (whichever is slowest). It takes a bit longer, but I never get a bad burn unless the disk is damaged. HTH, Ernie Registered Linux User 247790

I recommend installing a BitTorrent client and then downloading your installer CD. BitTorrent downloads do not require 'checksum' verification -- they do it automatically. Good luck! Kevin Chicago