How Can I compare 2 Files?

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Is there any straightforward way in WinXP Home Edition to compare two files?
I have copied a file from my hard disk to a CD-R and I would like to compare the two to see if they are the same.
The reason for doing this is that I was backing up my data using Backup My PC from Stomp Inc. and I told it to write the backup file to a CD. I also asked it to verify the backup and it came up with many errors on the CD file. I thought that I may have had a bad CD, so I repeated the operation with a new CD and came up again with many errors. I decided to to do part of the backup process manually, by getting the backup program to write the backup file to my hard disk and then copying the file myself to CD. I thought there would be an easy way for me to verify this copy, but I have been unable to find any way to compare the two files in XP.
Any suggestions?
 
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Is there any straightforward way in WinXP Home Edition to compare two files?
I have copied a file from my hard disk to a CD-R and I
Click to expand...
would like to compare the two to see if they are the same.
The reason for doing this is that I was backing up my data
Click to expand...
using Backup My PC from Stomp Inc. and I told it to write
the backup file to a CD. I also asked it to verify the
backup and it came up with many errors on the CD file. I
thought that I may have had a bad CD, so I repeated the
operation with a new CD and came up again with many errors.
I decided to to do part of the backup process manually, by
getting the backup program to write the backup file to my
hard disk and then copying the file myself to CD. I thought
there would be an easy way for me to verify this copy, but I
have been unable to find any way to compare the two files in
XP.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Two ways:
Start; Run; enter fc /? for instructions on how to use fc
(file compare).

Or, use Google and download a CRC calculator - run it on the
two files. If CRC's are same, files are same, else
different. This is by far the easier way when all you want
is to know if they're the same.

Or, this might work too:
Use Winzip, and zip each of the files. Winzip assigns a
CRC to each zipped file. Check to see if those CRCs are the
same.

These ONLY work if not compressed, encrypted. Must be
standard files.

Pop
 
Thanks for the three options. One further question: if I take the Winzip route, how do I compare the CRCs that it creates for the two files?

Patrick T
 
Patrick T said:
Thanks for the three options. One further question: if I take the Winzip route, how do I compare the CRCs that it creates for the two files?
Patrick T
Click to expand...

Patrick,
You will find that one of the columns in the list of files in a WinZip
archive shows the CRC for each file.
Wojja62
 
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