Torrent in progress but i need to reinstall windows

Patricide

Hey guys, short question might be simple, might be impossible but ive tried google and because I dont even know what to search for i said here would be my best bet.

Anyway, ever since installing a windows update on my laptop(XP btw) my computer has been running at a snails pace....Im talking extremely slow 10 minute start ups and shut downs. So ive decided that reinstalling windows is the best soloution to get it running fast again. However the only problem is that I have a rather large torrent in progress(its around 18 GB and i have 16 downloaded) and id rather not start again as it took me 2 weeks to download this much.

I was just wondering if there was anyway that i could transfer this over through to my clean install of windows so i wouldnt have to start at scratch again and how to do this if its possible?

Thanks again in advance, you guys have never steered me wrong thus far.

ED E

Most torrent clients will resume download fine, I port downloads between machines all the time.

On new install:
Open Application
Add Torrent
Close App
Copy data to download folder
Restart app.

It'll then find the hashes there, may take a second and can jump up in segments.

Overheal

You need to port your Torrent settings over - or I do at least, to be safe. BAsically its your Application Data folders, under Users, that you need to make sure you take with you. Along with the torrent and the file youre downloading as well and try and stick it all back in the same place when youre done.

DeepBlue

First off you need to back up the 18Gb you have so far - presumably to an external HDD.

• Then wipe, reformat and re-install Windows.
• Set up your bittorrent client on your fresh install.
• Copy the 18GB to your download folder.
• Load the .torrent file in your bittorrent client.
• Stop it immediately and do a force-recheck.
• When it's finished doing the recheck it should show that it's 88% complete (i.e. 16Gb of 18Gb already downloaded).
• Let it continue to download the rest.

So long as the directory structure of the torrent is named exactly the same on the new install as it was on the old install then you'll be fine. If it says you've 0% downloaded after the force-recheck then most likely the directory structure has been messed up in some way.

Overheal

My method assumes youre impatient and dont want to need to perform a re-check, which can take a considerable length of time for such a large torrent. The App Data folders store all of the juggled hash data iirc so by porting those over you save time by skipping the need to recheck the file(s)

Patricide

Thanks lads, i think il try this tomorrow. Hopefully everything will be fine . One thing though, i cant remember exactly which bit torrent file i have downloaded. Does it have to be the exact same one from the exact same site?

Again thanks for the speedy replies. Also if I were to go out and purchase windows 7 as an upgrade to xp would it work?

DeepBlue

Patricide wrote: »

One thing though, i cant remember exactly which bit torrent file i have downloaded. Does it have to be the exact same one from the exact same site?

Yes it would have to be the same .torrent file unless you're lucky and different .torrents on different trackers point to the exact same data files.

Do you save the .torrent file from whatever site you download it from or do you start it automatically with your bittorrent client? If you've saved the .torrent file somewhere on your pc then you can just use that.

Patricide wrote: »

Also if I were to go out and purchase windows 7 as an upgrade to xp would it work?

It should but you never know with Windows. Almost certainly it should work though.

kierank01

Patricide wrote: »

Thanks lads, i think il try this tomorrow. Hopefully everything will be fine . One thing though, i cant remember exactly which bit torrent file i have downloaded. Does it have to be the exact same one from the exact same site?

Again thanks for the speedy replies. Also if I were to go out and purchase windows 7 as an upgrade to xp would it work?

If you are using vuze/azureus, the .torrent file is saved in an application data folder.
Can't remember if it is in the doc's and settings or program files.
There is a setting where the path can be changed, so check that, and it should be there, or do a search for all .torrent files.