Utorrent still pre-allocates disk space even after disable

[iceshake]

The problem is less significant now with 1.1.6 but it still exists.

With 1.1.4, when I have 47 X 15 mb files to download in this multi splitted archive that I'm downloading. Previously, once the torrent connects, utorrent would "pre-allocate" the 705MB directly despie the pre allocate data option unticked.

Now with 1.1.6 it just pre allocates the 15mb even though it has just downloaded 0.01% of that 15mb.

I know I should have enough hard disk space before download a torrent, but due to my connection speed, it usually takes days to get a 700mb file, but within the first hour, I've already used up 700mb due to utorrent, pre allocating the various rar splitted files even though only a tiny portion of the file is downloaded.

Is this a bug or it is meant ot be like that?

[Firon]

Whenever any data is downloaded for a file, it has to allocate the space for the entire file to write that data. It's not a bug. Use sparse files (NTFS only) if you need the functionality you're thinking of, but it does increase fragmentation.

[li0n]

Whenever any data is downloaded for a file, it has to allocate the space for the entire file to write that data. It's not a bug. Use sparse files (NTFS only) if you need the functionality you're thinking of, but it does increase fragmentation.

what do you mean *exactly* by "increasing fragmentation". Do you mean that the file has a chance of corruption or there is a morelikely chance of data being unecessarily redownloaded.

[chaosblade]

Fragmantation refers to the state of the harddrive, where pieces of the same file are mixed all over the harddrive's surface (and free space is also scattered about).

[Firon]

When a file is not fragmented (contiguous), it's located in one continuous space on the drive. When it's fragmented, it's spread across various parts of the drive, and/or out of order (which happens with sparse files).

It decreases performance a bit when working with fragmented files, but that's it really.

[li0n]

Hmm thanks for that. I also noticed that even when i have "sparce_files" is set to true it still allocates some space.

For example i have a torrent which is 8.56gb, and so far i've completed 93mb of it, yet when i look at the folder, the size of it is 3.94gb (and only some of the files were there), but my total free disk place is well over 8 gig (about 12 gig atm).

I really liked the way ABC stored its files. It had all the files at 0, and put everything that was downloaded usually into the first file (by the looks of it anyway).

So what i find myself doing now is using ABC to start the torrent, and utorrent to continue downloading over it.

[Firon]

View the properties on files saved with sparse files. You'll see that the "Size on Disk" is much lower than the Size. it's just a little quirk of sparse files. the allocated space is what Size on Disk says, not what Size says.

[li0n]

View the properties on files saved with sparse files. You'll see that the "Size on Disk" is much lower than the Size. it's just a little quirk of sparse files. the allocated space is what Size on Disk says, not what Size says.

Ah i understand now

Ta mate