Help with decompressing RAR archive

Hello all.

I'm a member of Giganews, with a fairly slow internet connection, and have just spent a good couple of days downloading a 4Gb rar archive.

Frustratingly, the last part is missing. I have used QuickPar to try and repair the archive, but it says it still needs 8 blocks. There only seems to be four par2 recovery files, which seems less than usual.

I have tried to run Winrar manually from the command line, using the 'rar e -kb' options, which normally seems to work when one of the rar files is corrupt. But in this case it hasn't. The item I downloaded is a 5 part TV series, and even though I have 84 out of 85 rar files complete, the last episode in the series is almost completely missing.

It's very annoying - is there anything else I can do to try and construct the parts, or any other way I can try and find the missing item?

Many thanks for any help!

is a scene release?
you can try to download this part of some tracker or ask the uploader for more parts.

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Originally Posted by gezh

Frustratingly, the last part is missing. I have used QuickPar to try and repair the archive, but it says it still needs 8 blocks. There only seems to be four par2 recovery files, which seems less than usual.

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Even though Giganews is 'typically' the best and has all the parts, it isn't necessarily absolutely perfect (!).

I've run into two nzb's (gotten both from being posted on the newsgroup AND on Newzbin), just in the last couple of weeks, that had some MIA parts on GN.

In both cases, I was just barely able to repair the archive, but in doing so, took a look at a couple of other providers (AstraWeb in particular) block accounts I've had left over from WAY WAY back when I used to 'chase' parts.

What I'd do is confirm that the pars that were in the 'original' nzb were all there was; good posters sometimes 'see' that the post has gone off the tracks a bit, and post more. So, that might be your salvation. So, go off to the sites like Binsearch and see if there are more pars, first off.

Beck38 - thank you!

Binsearch (which I wasn't aware of) showed that I was missing four par2 files. When I created an nzb file for them, my software started downloading them. Now I can repair the archive, so everything should be fine.

Strange though, I wonder why they didn't show up on my searches, clearly they exist on the Giganews server. Maybe it's just some preferences I need to look at - the missing files were all damaged, so maybe I just need to configure my software to show damaged files in searches?

Anyhow, thanks again.

It depends on exactly 'where' the nzb was created; did the 'original' poster 'include' it along with the nfo, or was it posted later by whoever, or did it come from newzbin, or did you create it by some serch function built into your newsreader...?

Newzbin in particular is always 'skipping' additional pars, or even pars that were uploaded in the 'original' upload. Not uncommon at all.

In re-reading your last message, I guess that your s/w created the nzb, but where does it get (or search) for the files...? Guess it must have missed those that you found by using Binsearch.

Usenet is not an 'exact science', as you found out..! The continual argument over Newzbin is a good example, I pay (about 25cents a week) for the service, but it's simply one 'tool' in the 'toolkit' I use to get maximum sifting of what's available. Then again, my internet connection is used close to 100% 'load factor', 24/7.