Questions about Bittorrents

Jip

I've been downloading a rather large bittorrent file, about 5gigs, in stages over the last fews days. Some of the files are FLAC audio files.
Now here's the problem, when I try working with the files that have already been downloaded I'm getting errors with them, I tried converting them into AAC files for example but the conversion failed, I then ran an error check on the files to check it wasn't the utility I was using and the files failed the check.
Do I have to wait for the entire torrent to be downloaded before every file is complete or is the torrent itself just messed up ?

Firewalkwithme

If you pause the download and close bitorrent, then try copying the files you have downloaded to a different folder you should be able to use them. The problem I think is that you may not be able to do anything with the file while bitorrent is running because it also has the file open for uploading.

Could be wrong though.....

Jip

I tried that, paused the download, copied the files I wanted into a different folder and tried working on them from there, still no joy

Firewalkwithme

Could this be a codec issue then?

pickarooney

That always happens, I can never use the individual files until the whole thing is complete.

RE*AC*TOR

Jip - how do you know which files are complete?

Bittorrent to the best of my knowledge creates dummy files for all files in the torrent at the start. There are ways to see if certain files are complete but have you done this?

pickarooney

Generally it downloads them in order, so when file 1 is finished, file 2 starts and so on. If you look in the directory it's pretty obvious which ones have "finished" and which haven't. I reckon they only add the last couple of bits to each file at the very end though, to prevent hit-and-running.

RE*AC*TOR

pickarooney wrote:

Generally it downloads them in order, so when file 1 is finished, file 2 starts and so on. If you look in the directory it's pretty obvious which ones have "finished" and which haven't. I reckon they only add the last couple of bits to each file at the very end though, to prevent hit-and-running.

That's complete nonsense pickarooney.

The files are all being downloaded (presumably from different sources), sources which may or may not have certain parts. Also the bittorent protocol increase the weight on distributing parts that are less common in the greater swarm.

Azureus gives you an option to view the completion of various files within the torrent collection.

Gegerty

pickarooney wrote:

Generally it downloads them in order, so when file 1 is finished, file 2 starts and so on. If you look in the directory it's pretty obvious which ones have "finished" and which haven't. I reckon they only add the last couple of bits to each file at the very end though, to prevent hit-and-running.

no it downloads whatever it can get first, there's no order to it. Use azureus and you can choose not to download certain files and set the priority order. If there's one file you want first, like say a sample file of a movie, then set everything else to "Do not download" and it'll just concentrate on that one file till its finished.

As soon as you connect to a tracker it copies the file and folder structures to your HDD, but these are just empty files to start with.

Jip

Reactor, not very scientificaly ! I kept any eye on the file sizes and assumed they were complete after they got to a reasonable size and weren't updated in quite a while. As someone said, maybe the last few bits are not added till the very end to prevent leeching ?

RE*AC*TOR

use azureus. it will tell you whether a file is complete or not.

AFAIK there is no anti-leeching protocol at work. You can even define which files you want to download in azureus (if you don't want to download them all).

Just open the torrent with azureus and point it to where you have been downloading already.

The files may well be complete. In which case - they are either corrput to begin with or the software you are using is the problem. In any case - make sur ethe files are complete first - to rule that scenario out and get to the root of the problem. I'll keep an eye on this thread if you wanna post your progress.

sutty

Whats been said above, bittorrent will download what ever file peices it can get first. Not in any order. Alot of clients allow you to see what amount you have of each file. But from the last time I used the standurd BT client, it did not. As said, in azureus you are able to say what files you want to download, the same goes for the shadow client. Azureus just gives you more detail. You'll not be able to use the files from the standurd clients till you allocate the files to be finished and not shared. Azureus can open and share at the same time .

vibe666

what client are you using?

bitlord allows you to only download certain files within a torrent, but will download all the selected files concurrently.

Generally if I'm downloading an entire tv series or something (which of course I wouldn't but if I were to do that :rolleyes:) then I'd select the first few episodes first and let them complete before downloading the rest, that way i can watch some of them while I'm waiting for the rest to finish.

Jip

Cheers lads for the advice.
The first client I used was Bit Tornado which downloaded the files that failed the conversion and the check. Then last night I tried ABC but I was rushing off to bed then after it downloaded but after a quick check I don't think that was too successful either.

I'll try Azureus next, I had originally tried using that but I got the probelm that other people have pointed out on the board in that it just sat there doing nothing and I was too lazy to try the fix and that's why I went with the other clients. Laziness never pays off !

pickarooney

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

That's complete nonsense pickarooney.

The files are all being downloaded (presumably from different sources), sources which may or may not have certain parts. Also the bittorent protocol increase the weight on distributing parts that are less common in the greater swarm.

Azureus gives you an option to view the completion of various files within the torrent collection.

No, no it's not. That's what actually happens every single time I download a torrent with multiple files in it, so to call it complete nonsense is a bit of an overstatement. It may depend on the client I use, the torrents themselves or the tracker, but that is the way it happens, and is quite possibly the reason the OP is experiencing what appears to be exactly the same thing.

Lexmark.Printer

Jip wrote:

I kept any eye on the file sizes and assumed they were complete after they got to a reasonable size and weren't updated in quite a while. As someone said, maybe the last few bits are not added till the very end to prevent leeching ?

Thats the problem there!! Once you start to download a torrent it allocates the space needed to store the complete torrent on your hard disk.

For example if you are downloading a file that is 70MB in size and has 10 songs of 7MB. You can browse to your share directory and see the files are all there at 7MB even though you have just started to download them 2 seconds ago.

Azurues will show you which ones (% aswell) have been completed and you can listen/view/play any completed files.

snappieT

Yes, it just fills up the rest of the space of the LINUX RPM with zeroes

Lexmark.Printer

snapscan1212p wrote:

Yes, it just fills up the rest of the space of the LINUX RPM with zeroes

Exactly

<

---

7mb

---

>
[-D---------D-------DDD--------------D-DD----------D-D]

[ = Start
] = End

- = NULL Data
D = Data

So only 20% of the above 7mb file on your hard disk has valid data in it and you won't be able to play it till it is full of D's

Gone West

you definetly have to finish the download. For example if you *hypothetically* downloaded a series of tv episodes and it was at 50%, you would not be able to view even the 1st episode.

Giblet

A Software Issue. Moved.