peers stalled at 99.9% - last pieces fail hash check, ban seed

[bently]

dozens of people are trying to download a huge (40+GB) archive of over 500 files, and many like me are stalled at 99.9%

From some comments, it appeared that all needed to complete the same 12 files that were showing between 85% and 99.5% complete.

Over a dozen times I would connect to the seed and download one of the final 2 pieces, only to have it fail the hash check and ban the seed. I was in contact with the seed and he was not too familiar with how it all works so didn't know how to fix the problem. I am not sure either but am trying some things to get past this.

First I thought maybe the torrent file i had got corrupted somehow. I downloaded it again and pointed it to my existing files and did a force recheck. After a couple hours, it showed that the same 12 files needed snippets (all either at the beginning, end or both of the file) to finish.

Then i looked at my other files and saw I had those files already completed as part of another collection, I think the same collection this seed built his huge archive from. I stopped the torrent, replaced the 12 'incomplete' files with 12 that were complete from another folder. Then I did a force recheck again. As before, those same files showed the same incomplete status. This leads me to think that the files are fine and finished but that the torrent for some reason doesn't have the correct hash information on these 12.

If that is the case, what would cause that? 1] did the seed's torrent file get corrupted? or 2] did these 12 files on his computer get altered or corrupted?

In the interim, the seed did something, i am not sure just what, and I was able to download one of the final pieces and get it past the hash check. This finished 10 of the 12 files. Now I show only 2 incomplete files out of 500+ remaining after about 8 weeks of downloading. One reports 98.5% complete, the other 99.5%.

Since then, I have been able to connect to the seed and download what I think is the final piece several times, but each time I get this final piece, it fails the hash check and the seed is banned.

I am assuming that the torrent file the seed is using is the same as the one I am using. If so, then the only thing I can think is that a few of the seed's files were altered or became corrupted, so that they no longer match the hash as recorded in the torrent. we are trying to sort this now. one idea is to have the seed replace the last two problematic files with the original source files as they are available elsewhere and then do a force recheck to see if they match the torrent has tables.

If that doesn't work, is another option for him to create a new torrent of the same archive and post that as a corrected, updated torrent? should that fix this issue?

or is there some other way to fix this? about 40 peers are patiently waiting a fix so they can get the last .1% to complete the torrent.

[Switeck]

If the seed's copy is corrupted, there's not much you can do.

Sadly, uTorrent won't even keep pieces that fail hash...because there's probably some useful data there.

Many media player programs have a media indexer in them and even modify a file's MP3 tag...thus "corrupting" the last piece of that file as far as utorrent is concerned.

[bently]

these are .avi files...not mp3...but i suppose they could have been altered anyway

As I stated, I believe I have the original files as used by this seed in his collection. ASSuming he made his torrent with the same files I have, even though his files may have been modified after he made the torrent, if I replaced the 2 incompletes with the original complete files, shouldn't they then match hash?

[Switeck]

Yes, if you had the original files before they got corrupted they should hash ok.

AVI files also have MP3 tags if they have MP3 audio tracks.