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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


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