"seeding" a file from one local folder/computer to another.

[chart74]

I admit that this is a pretty rare need, but I'll post it here, just to plant a seed.

I recently had a HD crash and lost a 10GB file that was 50% complete. I redownloaded the file onto a separate computer, and got to about 50% when I recovered my first hard drive. I now have two 50% complete versions, which mean statistically I should have 75% of the file between the two. It's taken about a week for each, I really prefer not to redownload that 25%.

It would be nice if µTorrent could do a trackerless/LAN comparison of two incomplete files and merge the union of the two block sets. It seems to require no new technology. µTorrent is still comparing a file to a .torrent, determining what pieces peers have (in this case, the second file either on the same computer or on another computer in the LAN), and then transfering those pieces into the torrented file. I'm not really a programmer, but it doesn't seem like this would add bloat, it's just defining the process more generally: there's no tracker needed since the "peer" is defined, and there's no real WAN/bandwidth issues since you are just writing blocks from one folder to another, locally.

Solution 1, outside of a µTorrent feature:

It doesn't do me any good to create my own .torrent and privately seed myself, since I don't have the original 10 GB file to create the accurate torrent. I only have two incomplete 5 GB versions.

Solution 2, outside of a µTorrent feature:

I could join the swarm from both computers and hope that I eventually seed myself through the swarm, but this is a major waste of downloading.

Solution 3, outside of a µTorrent feature:

I can modify the old .torrent to a new public tracker (or set one up myself) and hope I'm the only 2 peers to join the swarm. This is a very ugly, inefficient solution, since I'm really just trying to move the file from one of my folders/computers to another.

With the number of computers in a home increasing, not to mention work computers, school computers, etc, the situation occasionally arises where multiple, incomplete versions coexist.

If there is any way to currently do this, please pass it on. Otherwise consider it as an idea to differentiate yourself from other clients.

Just an idea, and keep up the good work.

Chris

[Firon]

Do you have the original torrent file?

If so, you can load it up on both PCs. Do this for both PCs:

Turn on "New torrents start in stopped mode", then load the torrent. Make sure you point it to where the incomplete files are.

Turn off DHT on the torrent too (double click and uncheck Enable DHT). Uncap the download and upload on both clients.

On only ONE of the µTorrents, turn on bt.tracker_enable in the Advanced Options.

Put the local IP and the listen port of the PC you enabled the tracker on as the tracker URL (eg http://192.168.1.2:39864/announce ) on BOTH clients.

Start the torrent on both PCs.

They should send the data to each other and make each other as complete as possible, which may or may not be 100% of the torrent (probably not)

[splintax]

That's what I was going to suggest, never use public trackers unless you have to since they are really unreliable..

Use the inbuilt tracker

[chart74]

thanks guys. worked perfectly!

the only observations I noticed were

1. when i Switched Users in XP on the seeding computer, it seemed the inbuilt-tracker went down. it may have been coincidence. i got some sort of "socket" error on the non-seeding client.

2. despite having a 54G wireless network, the self-seeding seemed to max out at 150 kB/s. I've downloaded at speeds up to 400 kB/s from the WAN before (cable), so i'm not sure what was bottlenecking me. maybe the 150 up was limiting my down to 150. i disconnected the WAN to prevent any other bandwidth consumption, still 150.

in any event, thanks a TON!

[DutchDude]

Wow............. this is 1 for the FAQ's imho..... It could really be usefull for people not only restricted to HD crashes, but also for people who have partially downloaded torrents from different sites, or people who want to compare 2 different sets... and maybe more uses imaginable....

[youplaboum]

Hi, i have almost the same problem here, except i only have one computer.

I have torrent files being downloaded in the c:\utorrent\incomplete folder, and and some other incomplete files (from the same torrent) i retrieved in another folder (let's call it c:\junkfiles). How can i tell µtorrent to check \junkfiles to match and complete those in \incomplete?

[Firon]

The same exact instructions I gave, except using two different torrent clients (or running µTorrent twice with /recover and a different port for the second copy). It should work in theory. And use the betas for maximum speed I guess.

[youplaboum]

I didn't get it working with µtorrent /recover, it didn't allowed me to change the directory of seeding (both of them): I was able to open the "set download location" window, but it had no tree in it. I haven't gone further as i was afraid of messing with my downloads. is there any way to (in commandline or else) start a second session of µtorrent without charging all the previous downloads?

Besides, thanks to a friend i have another computer to do the manipulation listed above. But i have some questions about it:

- my download contains 65 files. I restored from the old downlad 12 uncomplete files. When i load them in µtorrent on the second computer, it shows several parts of files that i didn't have downloaded. How can this be possible? torrent is not supposed to create an empty file to store the download? it's like my 12 files contains some parts of the others.

- I transferred those 12 files in about a quarter of an hour to the second computer, but it took about an hour and a half to get every parts into the actual torrent. Well... why?

Oh and sorry for the pidgin, i'm not so fluent with the past time