OK, I hope this wasn't posted elsewhere.

So I have minimal experience in Linux, mostly I know windows, so I decided to try out a few differrent "versions" of Linux. I tried Suse 10.1, had some issues and decided I did not like it. Some how I managed to mess my boot directory up, so I repaired my xp boot directory (after removing suse). So, after all that (Now only xp is on my drive, working fine) this is where I am:

I try to boot to a Fedora Core 6 disk (cd-rom), and after the initial screen I get the following message:

"Decompressing Linux

ran out of input data
--system halted"

If it helps, I also tried to run Mepis 3.3 live and got the following:

"can't startup file system
Halting...."

So that where I'm at. Also: memory is fine as I tested it with memtest, don't know if that matters but someone mentioned memory in anohter forum I googled.

System stats:

Pentium D 805 2.66ghz (stock speed)
MSI intel 945gm2 mobo
2x512 Corsair pc 5300 (667), dual-channel
Seagate 300gig hd
Plextor px-755SA dvd drive

Maybe the CD is bad? Previous Redhat products had a CD test option in the boot menu, see if it's there for FC6 too.

BTW, the latest SuSE is 10.2

Unfortunently the cd is not bad. I was unable to get the test to run through as I ran into the same error. However the same thing happend when I burned another cd using another program. Also: I burned several cds at the time I burned this, and they work, so I don't think it is the cd, as much as I wish it was.

Yeah, I know suse 10.2 is out, but I thought I'd try something else, I actually have the dvd iso on my pc; however, I don't have any dvds right now

The downloaded image itself can be corrupted. Here are the correct SHA1 checksums for FC6 i386 discs:

In Windows you can check the images with this.

I'm willingto do a bit of reading, and have already begun looking around. But is there somewhere specifically I can look to figure out how to use this? Sorry, I'm a bit of a noob to linux.

Run sha1sum from command prompt.

Ok, just wondering, would this work instead?
http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I have the 64bit version.

Of course, but Real Users™ use command line

I agree, but for whatever reason I just couldn't get a simple command line to work, figure that. Anyways, wow, somehow I didn't figure the iso's would be corrupted, but apparently, at least the first one is. Funny I didn't think about it, but I believe all my FC6 iso's were dl by way of bittorrent. Would that be more likely to allow for file corruption? yeah, here are the check sums I got, so I'll try dl new iso's now. So thanks, I'll repost when I get some results, should be soon.

disc 1: 7aa210a6570811c20eb32e8e5ff5be1c4ae10206
(should be)5c976214a16b206761e37bbe5c98e53494b115ac

disc 2: c96518a96d0377c6f4115bf136363e6b2880c018
(should be) e2f8375ba631f449d137a28d6947e493c631f198

disc 3: d72dea1ff01c5a49ffa61683405ce3914d4083f2
(should be) 6c85acf08c7944362ba761cc32d1d26c612f327c

disc 4: 4c0ce615ae7f6d325bf05dd66aec92edcd25675d
(should be) 6290f258630cedb82ca45bcaff6d02a122a002df

disc 5: 5d994047ad70ef8e14b80222f2117d24249cac92
(should be) 7babc6131eb2ead65ca09b5efc475b7b212b0775

disc 6: d58dc520d14759e1f5dee01a55ee27a6f9122287
(should be) 38d975b6fa3b49262bc96df4bfd34d335c94ebb6

rescue: 21db25a82630fdddb932eaaa07750fa9081830bb
(should be) 18d0a690db32fd5569b41acf4f1affeb0448d5fe

Alright, so I downloaded new iso's and they checked out. Burned them, installed fedora core, so great. Thanks for you help

However, now it is freezing after a few minutes of use, mabye I need to reinstall, but I don't know. Do you think it could be a hardware conflict?