Will the bootable cd's write to the hard drive?

Travis86 · 03-23-2003, 02:59 PM

I bought a boxed set of RH 7.3 CD's and the media was defective, so they sent me another set. Unfortunately, due to poor organization, I can't remember which set is bad. If I stick in a set and run "linux mediacheck", will the program write anything to the hard drive? If so, will it write in an unused portion or just wherever?

I think everything will be fine, but want to make extra sure.

Capt_Caveman · 03-23-2003, 04:39 PM

If I remember correctly, the media check occurs before any installation or partitioning. So you would be fine to insert the disks and check the media even if they are corrupted. You also should be able to check all the disks, as once the media check is done you can insert another disk and check it as well.

Travis86 · 03-23-2003, 06:03 PM

Will there be any hard drive activity? I've already installed Linux, but lost track of which disk set was bad. I just don't want anything to be overwridden.

Capt_Caveman · 03-23-2003, 11:13 PM

You might see some hard-drive activity, but I think it's just linux probing the drive. Just change your bios to point to the cdrom, boot linux from the cdrom, run the media check and ctrl-alt-delete or restart after the media check. I just tried it myself and nothing is overwritten. There is probably a better way to do it though, maybe md5sum or gpg-key?