Hi,
I haven't installed linux at all yet! I'm xp running on 3 pcs, and want to install linux on my server pc becoz windows is Sh1T. I've downloaded mandrake 8.2 numerous times and burnt onto cd, but every time which ever pc i try to install on i get a selection of errors.....error in ram disk.........file missing....kernel panic init!....
How do i check the validity of the iso's i've downloaded? Using md5sum.exe is very usefull, but (i use xp) so i don't have an COMMAND folder to put thew .exe file into to check the md5sum's............. How can i check the iso's??

Try using the md5sum from http://www.md5summer.org/ . It is GUI so you should have better luck. Just put your iso's in one directory and browse there. Compare your results with those listed on http://www.linuxiso.org.

Nest time it's a good idea first to look if sums are correct and then burn them. From my experience, 1 out of 5 downloaded cds has wrong sum.