imageUSB and the 512-byte header

[SamJohnson]

Is there a reason that imageUSB doesn't include the 512-byte header when calculating the MD5sum? I need to image USB devices and archive them with an MD5 sum, but all of our current MD5 validation utilities include the 512-byte header, so I can't use the MD5sum returned from imageUSB.

Is there a way to optionally have imageUSB include the 512-byte header when calculating the MD5sum? Or failing that, are there MD5 utilities available for windows that would let me ignore the 512-byte header? I'm really just trying to save myself some time, by avoiding having a second process calculate the MD5 again.

Thanks for any input you can provide!

[Richard (PassMark)]

As you stated, the MD5Sum saved in the header is of the actual image (not including the header). We can't include the header when calculating the MD5sum, because the header is not finalized. We use the MD5 (and SH1) hashes to complete the header. If we did a hash of the image file with the header and then write it back into the header, then the hash would be incorrect since we changed the header information.