the Quick Par Primer
version 0.07
When and Why to use Quick Par
the Basics
Other Issues/Problems
If the parity says Par, or looks like
P01, P02, it's a Par1 file. Read about them here
When and Why to use Smart
Par 
Quick Par (and other[???] PAR2 programs) is an attempt for a "New,
Improved" version of the Smart Par (Par1) system of repairing files.
The premise behind Par2, and it's improvement over Par1 is that Par2
allows for the true repair of of a downloaded file as well as the
replacement of complete missing parts of the set, where as Par1 systems
only replace files - those downloaded "damaged" are completely
rewritten. While this system isn't bad, under Par2 the theory is that
you would be able to download less recovery files to repair for given
damaged set of files. From the signs so far the only case of this
happening is when the posted "set" greatly varies in size -
allowing the use of Par2's smaller recovery files to repair -
Note
the "MyMovie.wmv. vol00+01.PAR2.
1. MyMovie.wmv = is the name of the file
or set that this par applies too.
2. .vol00
= means volume 00; or repair
block zero
3. +01
= means this file
has only 1 repair "block".
the next set - vol01+02 simply states that it starts with repair block
#2 (volume 01), and has 2 "blocks", and so on till the last,
vol44 (starts with repair block 44) and +38 (contains 38 repair blocks).
BLOCKS For Par2, the creator of the parity set has the
ability to decide the smallest size of a repairable unit. This is what
is meant as a "block". For each bad data area within an archive up to
the size of a block, one "block" is needed for the repair.
If you're a poster, please consider the use of Par2's. Use them,
see if you find any less requesting. But use either Par 1 or Par 2, and
LIMIT you repair sets to NO MORE than 20% of the content you post.
the Basics
01. Download the program from the the
home site here ,
or if they are down for some reason you may get it at CC here
02. Unpack Quick Par to any directory
you want, then create a short cut or simply click on it to open.
03. The first thing it asks is if you
want to associate Quick Par with "Par", "Par2" files, and
intagrate it into the shell- I said selected just Par2 files.
04. Download all the available files
in the set you are interested in to your selected storage directory
along with the Par2 file or at least one of the recovery files.
05. Click
the Open button to locate the Parity files
06. Move
to the storage directory that contains ALL the files and pars, then
select the "par" file.
07. If you're missing the par2,
simply click on any of thePar2 files.
08. Quick par will then run an inventory and check the
condition of the
downloads:
In the above, out of 22 files, it shows that I have 18 complete (
not needing repair) in green, 1 damaged file (needing partial
repair) in yellow, and 3 missing files in red. With a parity
block of 384k (the default) and 82 parity repair blocks
available, the 3 color band line above is informing me that I'll need
70 more blocks of good data or parity files before I can affect repair.
If you have no problem files, you can skip down to #12.
09. If you have you have enough pars to repair, or you've
downloaded the needed vblocks, Quick Par will then let you know:
10. At this point simply click on the Repair button to begin
repairs.
11. Quick Par will then begin chugging along. Depending on
how compressed the files, paritys and how large, this can take some
time to complete.
12. Once complete, Quick par will confirm all files
again. You should see:
In which case you're done and don't need this anymore.
Other Issues
NEWREADERS
Some newsreaders (Agent and Free Agent come to mind) will not
join files with missing sections in a way that will allow Quick Par to
"validate" anything beyond the first missing section. Check out our
instructions on how to improve your odds here.
FEATURES ADDED
One of the nicest add ons as come with version .90 at the lower right -
an "extras" button. If you've posted or download a set of files and
par2s, but requesters tell you that they still need more, you can
create them by simply setting the "add-on" amount neede
copyright 2004 by the abmefaq consortium Ltd
