Save PAR2 tab info at same time as queue

[therealjoeblow]

RDL,

Would it be possible to have alt.binz save the par2 tab status info (checked, not checked, complete, incomplete etc) at the same time as the queue is saved, rather than just at program close?

I often leave a/b running for many days on end, and on the rare occasion that it crashes (mostly happens if the drive fills up where it is running, and when it tries to autosave the queue it crashes because it can't save the temp file), then generally the queue is ok because it's been autosaved regularly at whatever interval I specified, *BUT* I lose all of the PAR2 checking status for that time period, and if I have downloaded 100+ items over the past few days, I now have no idea what was checked and ok, and what wasn't.  If it was autosaved along with the queue, I'd lose very little if any info.

Many thanks,
The REAL Joe

[EyeBaller]

Why don't you just have things auto-extract, then there's no need to save the par2 info?

[Mystic2010]

Certainly true, but what if you're in the middle of the download but decide to close the program and resume the next day? This would mean the next day either the par2 has to start over with checking again, while the (some of the) files have already been checked the previous day.

At least, that's what I think he means. If so, +1 for me

[Ascathon]

The same case when the progam crashes (rare i know or when you have terminate the process. When restarting the par2 tab shows already extracted items or misses some files.

This would mean the next day either the par2 has to start over with checking again, while the (some of the) files have already been checked the previous day.

Setup -> Par -> Save on exit/recheck on start

[Mystic2010]

I already know about that feature . What I was referring to was a little different: have a file like the queue tab where info is written into about the PAR2 already checked files, so that next time, altbinz doesn't have to check all the files that have already been checked again.

At least, I thought that that might be what the startposter was talking about

[Ascathon]

As far as I know the client doesn't really check each file when it is downloaded. It shows them red when not all parts are ready/available. The real check takes place when the downloading is done and the par tab shows something like checking files.nvm

[therealjoeblow]

As the thread originator, I have a very good reason why I do *NOT* extract automatically, and therefore would like to please reaffirm the request to periodically save the PAR2 status information.

Did you ever have a 60GB harddrive crash? If so, how much of the 60GB did you manage to recover?

I did, and got back 99% of the data, but *only* because it was basically all RAR'd material with at least 15mb of PAR2's for each folder of RAR's.  When the drive crashed, I got it mechanically going again, but the FAT was totally scrambled, all of the directory listings looked like greek characters (on offence to the Greeks reading this...).  When I ran recovery software on it, it found about 90,000 files, but named them all File00001.fil etc.  Quite a mess and a lot of heartburn, but using a search tool, I was able to find out which files had PAR2 in their headers and which ones had RAR in the headers and do some basic renaming from the header information, then by painstakingly running the PAR2's over a few weeks, Quickpar eventually found all of the RAR files and renamed and repaired the RAR sets, losing virtually nothing!

Try that with a drive of stuff that had been extracted and the PAR2's deleted - you'd have lost the whole 60GB I bet.

So now, my personal strategy is download whatever it is I'm downloading, *AND* at least 15mb of PAR2's whether or not they are needed, and save it all as is until such a time as I get around to burning it, and then extract it only just before.

PAR2 works exactly the same as a server's RAID controller and is a very good 2ndary backup - you should never delete them if you want your data to remain intact.

Cheers,
The REAL Joe