Re-downloads of same file corrupt original

[rawsaxy]

This is the 2nd time this happens, and would appreciate how to deal with the following problem. I completed downloading a 9GB torrent (combo of PDF files and mp3s) not too long ago. There was one particular file I wanted to re-download. When I opened the torrent, I selected only the 1 file I wanted to download, since all others had downloaded successfully, opened, and played fine. While I left that one file of the torrent downloading, I went to read one of the other files, and all of a sudden, none of them would open. Not the PDF files or the mp3s, not a single one. They all worked perfect before I started to re-download the torrent.

When I try to open any of the PDF files now, Acrobat Reader prompts with:

"Adobe Reader could not open 'name of file.pdf' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded.)"

Now, as stated before, all of these files opened fine, and all the mp3s played fine. It was only when I decided to re-download the same torrent again, that now none of the files will open. Has anyone ever experienced this? I didn't know that if an entire torrent's files had finished downloading properly and worked, that if you re-downloaded the same torrent again, it would corrupt everything. Other than having renamed and relocated the folder and files, is there a way to fix this? Anyone know why this would happen?

In God's Harmony

[thelittlefire]

If they're in the same place, and you told uT to download them... are they 0 bytes? Open the file(s) with a hex editor, are they all NULL characters (00)?

[rawsaxy]

No, they all kept their correct file size, and no null characters. Everything is still inside the original folder when all was downloaded, and looks the same. The only difference is that now none of the files will open because when you do, a message appears stating that the file may have been corrupted. That's what has me stumped, because they all worked fine before I tried to re-download.

[Switeck]

Just to be on the safe side, do a scandisk of your hard drive/s.

[rawsaxy]

I appreciate the informative links. I did read them, but unfortunately none of these addresses my specific problem. For those out there interested in my particular situation, I will try to simplify what is going on. Hopefully, someone will be able to figure this out and I could avoid having to re-download the entire 9GB all over again.

1. I opened a torrent file using uTorrent. That file has a combination of PDF files and mp3 files in it. Basically, music books with music backgrounds to play along with.

2. After several days of downloading, all folders with their respective files appeared in my hard drive.

3. I opened the PDF files and played all the mp3 files with no problems whatsoever. Everything worked fine.

4. I wanted to "re-download" a few of the files, not the entire thing.

5. I opened the torrent file using uTorrent again, selected "none", and then only clicked on 1 or 2 specific PDF files I wanted to download again.

6. The moment the download began, I went to play one of the mp3 files and one of the PDF files (not the ones I was re-downloading), and neither would open. I tried opening several others, and the same problem occurred. None of the previously working PDF or mp3 files will now open.

7. Apparently, the act of re-downloading the same torrent, locked or corrupted all the files. They all have the same icons as before, same file sizes, etc. They just won't open now. When trying to open the PDF files I get: "Adobe Reader could not open 'name of file.pdf' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly decoded.)" And when trying to open any of the mp3 files I get: "Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file." Or in RealPlayer-"This clip cannot be played. It contains unexpected data and may be corrupt." In any case, they all use to work.

In God's Harmony,

RAWSAXY

[Ultima]

Odd. Make a backup copy of the files (9GB is a lot, but it's better than redownloading), select all files for download in µTorrent, then force a recheck for the torrent. What does µTorrent show afterwards?

[Switeck]

I appreciate the informative links. I did read them, but unfortunately none of these addresses my specific problem.

Those links are my signature...not really part of my post.

Can you access the files if you close uTorrent?

[rawsaxy]

I would like to thank all of you for trying to help. I was about to re-check, when I discovered that I had a complete back-up in another folder which works perfectly! Thank God! Honestly, I don't know why what happened... happened, but I don't want to risk corrupting the files I have in back-up. I still don't know why when re-downlaoding a previous downloaded file it would corrupt and leave useless the first download. Out of curiosity, I'm going to experiment with a few small files and see if the situation repeats itself.