The Fedora distribution is provided in the form of ISO 9660 standard filesystem
images. You can copy these ISO images onto either CDROM or DVD media to produce
a bootable disc. Before you can install Fedora on a computer, you must
transfer, or burn, the ISO files to blank disc media (CD-R/RW or DVD-R/RW).
This document describes the procedure for burning these files using a few
common tools. This document assumes that you have no experience with Linux, and
that you are using Microsoft Windows for the purpose of downloading and burning
the files. The ISO files are large, and it may take a long time to download
them, especially using a dial-up modem. You may want to use a download manager.
Fedora is distributed on multiple CD-sized ISO image files, or a single
DVD-sized ISO image file. You can use the single DVD ISO file if your computer
meets the following requirements: It has a DVD-writable or DVD-rewritable drive
It has a NTFS drive with sufficient space to hold the image file To write the
DVD ISO file to a disc, your computer needs to have a drive that will write to
DVD media. If your computer has a drive that only writes CD media and not DVD
media, download the CD-sized files instead. Some file systems cannot store
files larger than 2 GB, such as the DVD image. The commonly-used NTFS file
system does not have this limitation, but many other non-NTFS formats do, such
as FAT32. To check the format of a drive under Windows such as C:, select the
Start menu and then My Computer. Right-click the drive you want to check, and
choose Properties. The resulting dialog displays the format for that file
system. If you do not have an NTFS drive with enough free space, download the
CD-sized files instead. Create a new directory where you can download all of
these files. You need approximately 700 MiB of free space available for each
CD-sized ISO file, or approximately 3.5 GiB for the DVD-sized ISO file. This
document assumes you have downloaded the files to the folder C:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Downloads\Fedora. The exact files you need from
the download server depend upon your system and the version of Fedora you are
downloading. The files you need are named in the form of Fedora-<version>-
<arch>-disc<count>.iso, where "<version>" is the version of Fedora you wish to
download, "<arch>" is your computer's processor architecture, and "<count>" is
the disc number for each of the installation CDs. In the case of an
installation DVD, DVD is used in the filename. The computer processor
architecture is usually i386 for 32-bit PCs, including the Pentium and Athlon
processor families. The architecture is usually x86_64 for 64-bit PCs,
including the Athlon 64 processor family. The architecture is usually ppc for
PowerPC computers, including most of Apple's Mac offerings. If in doubt, your
system probably requires the i386 versions. If you are downloading Fedora 9 for
a Pentium 4 computer, for example, you need the file Fedora-9-i386-DVD.iso. You
may also need the SHA1SUM file to verify that the files you have downloaded are
complete and correct. Errors can occur during the download, even if your
download manager reports none. Therefore it is very important to check that the
files have not been corrupted in any way. This is the purpose of the SHA1SUM
file. It contains one line for each of the available ISO files with a content
verification code called a hash computed from the original ISO files. 
BitTorrent automatically performs this error checking during downloads. If your
BitTorrent application reports all files have been successfully downloaded, you
can safely skip this step. There are a number of free (as in cost) products
available for file validation and hashing that have point and click interfaces.
Here are links to a few of them: HashCalc: eXpress CheckSum Calculator (XCSC):
Follow the instructions provided to install the program. When you run the
program, use the file selection tools provided to select your downloaded ISO
image files. Then select the SHA-1 algorithm for calculation, and run the tool.
The program takes some time to complete, since it must read the entire ISO
file. Open the file SHA1SUM with a text editor, such as WordPad, to display its
contents. Make sure the hash displayed by the hash tool for each of the
downloaded ISO files exactly matches the corresponding hash in the SHA1SUM
file. If all of the hashes match, you can then burn the ISO files to media. If
a file does not match, you may have to download it again. The Fedora Project
and Red Hat Inc.. have no control over external sites such as the ones listed
above, or the programs they provide. To check the files using the command
prompt, you need to download the program sha1sum.exe. For instructions and the
link to download the program, refer to . The sha1sum.exe program computes and
displays hashes. To use it, save sha1sum.exe to the same directory as the ISO
files. Select Run... from the Start menu and then enter cmd for the name of the
program to start a Command Prompt window. Then change into the download
directory. Run sha1sum with each ISO file like this: cd "C:\Documents and
Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Downloads\Fedora" sha1sum.exe
Fedora-9-i386-DVD.iso The program takes some time to complete, since it must
read the entire ISO file. Open the file SHA1SUM with a text editor, such as
WordPad, to display its contents. Make sure the hash displayed by sha1sum.exe
for each of the downloaded ISO files exactly matches the corresponding hash in
the SHA1SUM file. If all of the hashes match, the ISO files can be burned to
media. If a file does not match, you may have to download it again. The process
of burning a CD is not always obvious to the users of Windows. Windows
applications often let users burn data discs by simply dragging the source
files into a box and clicking the Burn button. In reality, though, the burning
software performs two operations. First, it creates an ISO 9660 standard image,
just like the ones used to install Fedora, from the source files that were
dragged into the box. Second, it transfers that ISO file onto the blank CD. If
the original source file was already an ISO image, the resulting CD is not
usable for installation purposes. To create the Fedora installation discs, it
is vital that you only perform the second step with the Fedora ISO files. The
steps required to do this using several popular CD burning applications are
listed below. Information on how-to burn media using Fedora is covered in the
Fedora User Guide. Obtain and install the ISO Recorder power toy from the web
site. In Explorer, right click on the first Fedora ISO file. In the context
menu, select Copy image to CD. Follow the steps given by the CD Recording
Wizard pop-up. Repeat for the remaining ISO files. Start Creator Classic.
Select Other Tasks. Select Burn from Disc Image File. Choose the Fedora ISO
file and burn it. Start the program. Open the File menu. Select Burn Image.
Choose the Fedora ISO file and burn it. Repeat the above steps for each of the
other ISO files. Start the program. Select Disc Image or Saved Project. An Open
dialog appears. Select the first Fedora ISO file. Click Open. Set the writing
speed for your disc recorder. The optimal setting depends on your specific
hardware. Click Next to burn. Repeat the steps above for the other ISO files. 
In order to be certain the CDs will work on your system, you may wish to burn
only disc 1 and then perform the following process before burning the others:
Following the directions from your computer's manufacturer, make sure your
computer's BIOS is set to boot from the CD drive. Reboot the computer with the
Fedora disc in the CD drive. The boot menu for the Fedora installer appears.
Enter àšŠàš¬àšŸàš à¥€ Follow the directions on-screen until you are asked if
you would like to perform a media check. Conduct the check against the disc. If
the check succeeds, your disc is correct. At this point the installer has
changed nothing on your computer. Remove the Fedora installation disc and
restart the system. If you have suggestions for this document, send an email to
relnotes AT fedoraproject.org. We welcome directions for other tools and
platforms.
