My first attempt to make the XP switch
 

Hi all, I am having furocious troubles making any progress with Linux. Here's what's happened so far with regard to Mandrake 9.2:

1. I didn't want to pay for software I wasn't even sure I liked, so I went to the ftp sites and downloaded the 3 isos. So far so good.

2. Burning CD1 iso resulted in an error with Nero. This error kept coming up with repeatedly with simulations. Tried using Alcohol 120%, same thing. I searched around for answers and was told to get an MD5 chksum program, looks like the iso I had was not correct.

3. Downloaded CD1 again. MD5 chksum worked this time. Attempted to burn with Alcohol. Simulation worked, but then the actual burning failed. Then i tried burning with Nero, and slowed down my burn speed to about 24x. This time the simulation worked but I still got an error in the disc. I looked at the disc and bizzaredly it had a file structure and 650 MB as one would it expect had it been successful. So I tried to use it.

4. Reboot with the CD inside. After some complicated goings-on, I got to what appeared to be the install screen. And then, right after "checking USB devices" I got this:
"Could not uncompress 2nd stage ram disk. This is probably a hardware error while reading the data."

5. Just tried to burn a 4th time with Alcohol. Simulation worked. Burn process reached 92% and then failed. The CD was partly usable. I made it further through the install process. I rechecked the MD5 and I am positive the file is correct, the burning is not working though.

6. Upgraded to Nero 6.3.0.3. Burned at an incredibly low 4x, and thank god it worked. I'll speed disk and partition tomorrow, more to come! :)


Thank you for your help

try a newer version of nero or another cd-writer ?
i downloaded the MDK 9.2 iso's too, and burned them fine with nero...

Does Nero have an 'overburn' option. isos are usually > 640 hard limit. Helped a person having similar trouble as you cause k3b had overburn disabled, it hit the hard limit, in his case 98% and died. Other options...
Cheapbytes.com
$6.99 for the Mandrake 3CD set.
Download knoppix, it is smaller than 640Mbytes, might burn easier, then you can use Linux to burn the isos...

RO

Try burning another type of ISO
 

You can try burning another type of ISO. I had a similiar problem with my cdrw drive but it turns out that it wasn't a software problem but my cdrw had gone bad.

Have you tried burning other things?

correct me if I'm wrong but aren't the mdk9.2 isos 700MB rather than 650MB? That would explain why the burn would crap out towards the end. Also, I found that a lot of CD-R's actually don't do very well at high speed. I once bought a pack of CD-Rs claiming they could be burned at 48x and they gave me nothing but coasters at anything faster than 4x.... So try burning them real slow.

Thanks Quasatch, I upgraded Nero, and burned the disc at 4x. It worked great, I think that may have been the problem.
I'll speed disk overnight and partition tomorrow, thank you for the help!