This is an old revision of the document!

How to verify the checksum of a downloaded file in Windows

Here is a way of verifying the checksum, for example, of a BIOS update file that would be downloaded from Dell Support website for the purpose of updating the BIOS on the motherboard of a particular model Dell PowerEdge T110 II Server.

Dell's recommendation with respect to the downloaded file:

To ensure the integrity of your download, please verify the checksum value.

MD5: 7c68c361de9a3b38fa5aa2cb6e70e1d2

SHA1: 6e58d7caccb6a626d5ffc8f702bb444358ea5c5d

SHA-256: f1ec6eea936a0fffed580e6c301149054cd4918113d0aea3b800945c607027bf

Steps to verify the checksum.

1. In Windows, open a command prompt; that is, search and run “cmd” (without the quotes). A command prompt window should open as follows.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.3803]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Username>

1. Change to the subdirectory path where the downloaded file is located

C:\Users\Username> cd c:\users\pc\downloads\T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01\

2. Run the CertUtil command with the -hashfile option and insert the filename of the downloaded file and append either SHA256 or MD5 or SHA1

c:\Users\Username\Downloads\T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01>certUtil -hashfile T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01.EXE SHA256

SHA256 hash of T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01.EXE:

f1ec6eea936a0fffed580e6c301149054cd4918113d0aea3b800945c607027bf

CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

c:\Users\Username\Downloads\T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01>

3. Visually compare the generated hash checksum value in the above example to the expected given SHA-256 checksum value. If they match, then you have verified the integrity of the downloaded file.

Generated SHA256: f1ec6eea936a0fffed580e6c301149054cd4918113d0aea3b800945c607027bf

Expected SHA-256: f1ec6eea936a0fffed580e6c301149054cd4918113d0aea3b800945c607027bf

Another example, this time generating an MD5 checksum.

c:\Users\Username\Downloads\T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01>certUtil -hashfile T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01.EXE MD5

MD5 hash of T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01.EXE:

7c68c361de9a3b38fa5aa2cb6e70e1d2

CertUtil: -hashfile command completed successfully.

c:\Users\Username\Downloads\T110-II_BIOS_5R0T5_WN64_2.10.0_01>

Compare the expected MD5 checksum value with the generated MD5 checksum value:

Expected MD5: 7c68c361de9a3b38fa5aa2cb6e70e1d2

Generated MD5: 7c68c361de9a3b38fa5aa2cb6e70e1d2