im a complete linux n00b and i'm having trouble getting centos4 to dual boot w/ anything to be honest. ive tried upgrading to centos5 but the cdrom drive keeps saying every iso i've gotten has a bad checksum (sounds bad don't know what it means) i'm not exactly computer literate but i was told to install this so it could run a program i need for work. all traces of windows are gone, i have an XP install disk that doesnt boot, along with linux mint and a gparted live cd all using the iso (other than the windows that one i bought) and none of them are able to make the pc boot from the cd. the only cd that actually works for a boot disk is the original cd from centos4. any help?

I would suggest there might be a problem with the CD-ROM... Generally the way to do dual boot with windows and linux is to install windows first, doing windows second can be problematic but is fixable. If your CentOS 4 OS in burnable I would advise installing the Windows OS leaving space for CentOS and installing that afterward. If you are having a problem installing Windows it might be related to the same problem as CentOS 5, but I'd advise a new download and burn off the CentOS install disc however.

As for the Check Sum, I think the easiest I can explain it, is it is a number generated by a formula using the data in a file, when you download the file, the checksum is then re-run against the file and the newly generated number is compared to the previously generated number, if they are different that's a bad checksum, if the numbers are the same then that is a good checksum. This is done to check for inconsistencies or corruptions caused to the data during any part of the download or burning process.

Thanks, currently the problem is that the cdrom wont recognize any of my boot cds. I currently run Cent and now need to run windows. so should i replace the cdrom drive and try again?

"every iso i've gotten has a bad checksum (sounds bad don't know what it means)"

I'd worry about this first.