considering the sheer number of files i have on download (legit, i assure you, just every OS on MSDN, and ) and that i haven't quite decided how i want to store them (DVD, Exterernal HDD, remote file server) and so on, and that many of them have keys, which i will need (and i assume windows keys don't expire!) i'm working on a rudamentry file listing for it. Looking at it now, in forsight

1) i should be able to detect errors in files so i know they are good, especially where i am potentially going to transfer them between various systems,and storage devices

2) should be relatively platform independant

3) should be as simple as possible

2/3 is settled by starting with a flat text file with clear labels, since i can export this to excel, or possibly a database at some point, with a little find and replace fu (granted that i HAVE crashed notepad with excessive use of this command), and most unix/linux systems manage the line change issue relatively nowadays.

for 1
1) i'd need a listing of the contents (simply), ISO/folder file name (preferably keeping the original names, which are occationally cryptic), and in the case of the former, an md5 sum would be helpful(considering its widely used for the job)

if i were using a batch script to do this (not impossible but not necessary unless you plan badly, or need to do this sorta listing after the fact) i'd probably use the command line md5sum software to do it, but in this case i'm using a shell extention called digest it

another decision i need to make, and isn't made yet is how to handle folders/directories, such as how XP embedded is delivered. the 'ideal' solution would be self extracting EXEs since i wouldn't be tied to any software (but i would be tied down to an OS, which is a hitch) since i would have a unified way of handleing everything, especially i added in a text file with serial numbers a folder with each ISO and compressed it.

planning to store files is hard work :)

Ref: http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/using_md5sums.html#links where i got the links for md5 summing out of