Here is a comprehensive way to check while files are incomplete, corrupted or modified
There are several programs which you can use to check file integrity of your computer system. The common ones that we will be detailing have been listed below:
- MD5 and SHA Checksum Utility
- HashTools
- HashTab
MD5 and SHA Checksum Utility
If you don’t want to pay for this utility, then the free edition of MD5 and SHA Checksum Utility can calculate the following hashes:
- MD5
- SHA1
- SHA256
- SHA512
One perk of using this program is that it’s fast for large files but unfortunately, doesn’t work for multiple files at the same time. Also, it doesn’t have an option for integrating the program into the Windows Explorer context menu. You will get all of these features if you decide to invest in the paid version. After launching the app, you can either drag and drop a file over its window or click the Browse button near the File box and use the integrated file browser to locate and open the file.
HashTools
HashTools supports the following hashes:
- CRC32
- MD5
- SHA1
- SHA256
- SHA384
- SHA512
One advantage of using this program is that HashTools can process multiple files at once as well as compare hashes. To get started, right-click one or more selected files or folders and select Hash with HashTools. This opens the main app window, where all files are listed with their full paths. Checksums are not auto-calculated, so you can add more files to the list or remove any of them.
HashTab
HashTab is a Windows extension that gets integrated into the Properties dialog of files, and the biggest advantage of using this app is that it is highly generous in terms of hash support. By default, the app calculates only CRC32, MD5, and SHA1 but also provides support for the following hashes:
- Adler32
- BLAKE2sp
- BTIH
- CRC32
- ED2K
- GOST
- MD2
- MD4
- MD5
- RIPEMD128
- RIPEMD256
- RIPEMD320
- SHA1
- SHA256
- SHA256 Base64
- SHA384
- SHA512
- SHA3-224
- SHA3-256
- SHA3-384
- SHA3-512
- TTH
- Tiger
- Whirlpool
To get started, click on Settings, which located below the Name and Hash Value list, and tick the boxes of the hashes you want to calculate and clear the ones that don’t interest you. This will help to speed up calculations for large files.
If you have any doubts on your system’s file integrity, you can always download one, or all three of these of tools can get started to get your checksum integrity running.
