I have two sets of discs which are mirrored copies of each other. Does an algorithm exist which could verify if the copy made is same as the original?

link|improve this question
What kind of discs? CDs? DVDs? Hard disks? – slhck Jan 31 at 10:00
2  
"Read a block from disk 1 into memory" "Read the same block from disk 2 into memory" "Compare the two" "If not equal or read fails due to no more data, then disks are not identical, so abort" "If at the end of both disks, disks are identical" "Repeat for next block" There's your algorithm. – Michael Kjörling Jan 31 at 10:13
feedback

1 Answer

There are various utilities which will calculate you a checksum; if the checksum differs, then the data is different, and the checksum will detect random errors. An example is MD5, and there are various utilities which will compute MD5sums for you.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.