Error in downloaded file?

[johnbinsc]

I am new to torrent. I am using the bittorrent 6.4 client on Windows7 64 bit.

Bittorrent seems to be working fine, I have a bunch of peers and seeds. The download and upload speeds seem about right. The network connection indicator is green etc.

I am trying to download a large file that includes a Dvd .iso image of about 4GB plus a few smaller files. The ISO is zipped.

The first try everything seemed to finish OK, but when I try to unzip the iso, the output file is only 400MB, and 7-Zip gives me an error message.

What is the source of this problem? Is the original file that was shared no good, and the torrent problem is just reproducing that bad file? Or is there some potential way that the torrent download process itself can have corrupted the file?

I did delete and then re-open the .torrent file in bittorrent 6.4, and then opened it again and it looked like it just checked that the file I had already downloaded was OK, which only took 30 seconds or so, and I got the nice solid blue bar and no error messages from Bittorrent. But the same problems when I tried to extract with 7-Zip.

Currently I am trying to download the entire torrent again, having first deleted the previously downloaded files. But it will be hours before that completes.

TIA

[paintball9]

We don't deal with content here. You should first check the details page for the torrent in question and then if that doesn't explain whats going on (from comments) ask in the forums on that site/tracker.

And as far as bittorrent making a mistake its unlikely, the bittorrent protocol uses a piece hashing system to compare and validate each piece as it is completed. If a piece is broken (as based on the torrent file) it simply throws it out and starts again. If the torrent file was damaged during the initial download the chances of you getting the pieces to match the broken checksums is almost non-existent. If you feel like checking anyways you can re-download the torrent file and re-check the files with the newly downloaded .torrent loaded.

[johnbinsc]

Thanks for the response.

I understand that you don't deal with particular content here, but your response had general information that is very helpful to the uninitiated.

The key piece I needed to know is that it would be a waste of time to download the same stuff using the same .torrent file, as that would probably give me the exact same result.

I still have a couple more general questions though.

Where do I look to find the "details" page for a torrent?

How do I find the site/tracker for a particular torrent?

[paintball9]

Just go back to the page you got the torrent from, there should be a comments section, check if anyone has posted complaints about the file not working or directions on how to use it.

Also you can check the torrent tracker tab in utorrent and see what site it was originally posted at, then go to one of those sites and do a search to find the original post, same focus on that, look for comments.