QuickPar v0.5 Now Available.

Version 0.5 of QuickPar is now available for everyone to download.

Please visit http://www.pbclements.co.uk/QuickPar/ for details and to download the new version.

The list of bug fixes and other changes since version 0.4 are as follows:

Bugs fixed:

* Files that contained identical blocks of data would sometimes be missrecognised during Verification and reported as damaged. This was most likely to happen with very small block sizes.

* When Verifying and Repairing, filenames that included characters with bit 7 set (i.e. most accented characters) were treated as invalid and replaced with "_".

* If a file was missnamed so that its name was that of another target file, then it would not be recognised as such. (NB Missnamed files that do not have the name of another target file have always been correctly recognised).

Changes:

* Verification and Repair using PAR 1.0 files is now possible.
* Whilst Verifying, the count of the number of Complete, Missnamed, Damaged, and Missing files is displayed.
* Details of the results of file Verification are now stored in cache file (with either a .qp1 or .qp2 file extension depending on whether PAR 1.0 or PAR 2.0 files were being used). The cache file is read on startup.
* The system menu now includes an option to allow you to change the priority whilst processing is taking place. You may also set the default priority from the Options dialogue.
* When creating PAR2 files you are now offered the choice of three schemes for determining how many recovery blocks are placed in each PAR2 file: 1) Variable size (where each file contains approximately twice as many blocks as the previous one), 2) All same size (where the recovery blocks are distributed as evenly as possible amongst the PAR2 files), 3) Variable with size limit (where a number of variable sized PAR2 files are created but where the largest PAR2 file contain exactly enough recovery data to repair the largest data file).
* When Verifying files there is now an option of Monitor the hard disk for new files.
* When Verifying files, every file in the folder where the PAR2/PAR1 file is located will be checked or scanned. Only files whose names are sufficiently close to the filenames listed in the PAR2/PAR1 files will be thoroughly scanned for good data. A file is scanned if its name is filename.ext.NNN, filename.ext.NNN-MMM, filename.NNN.ext, filename-NNN.ext, or filename_NNN.ext. It will also be fully scanned if its filename is identical to the name of a target file except for substitutions made to punctuation characters or characters with bit 7 set. Other files are simply checked to see if they are undamaged but missnamed versions of files. Files that are incomplete or damaged and also have the wrong filename will not be fully scanned until you use the Add button.
* Options dialogue added to allow the configuration of PAR2 and PAR file associations, shell integration, default process priority, and preferred block sizes.
* When creating PAR2 files, the checkbox to set the block size to that appropriate for UUEncoding for Usenet has been removed and replaced with an option to restrict the block size to multiples of the preferred block size specified in the Options dialogue.
* The checkbox that specifies one set of critical data in PAR2 files has been removed.
* On startup QuickPar attempts to determine how fast the CPU can process data. This speed is then used to calculate the time estimate displayed to create PAR2 files.
* When selecting the level of redundancy for new PAR2 files,
QuickPar tells you exactly how many of the original data files the PAR2 files could be used to repair. A minimum and maximum figure is displayed and these may be different if the source files are not all the same size.
* Most settings (such as redundancy) are remembered for the next time you create PAR2 files.
* The Verification and Repair dialogue now displays the sizes of files.
* When suggesting the filename to use for PAR2 files, it now trims the suggestion back to the last "." in the filename. This avoids creating files with names such as demo.mpg.part0.vol07+08.par2.

Features requested or planned:

* Permit the selection of Folders when using the shell context menu in Windows Explorer.
* Store and use path information in the PAR2 files so that files in subfolders can be correctly found and repaired.
* Add the ability to queue PAR creation requests so that they will be processed one after another in the background.
* Add the ability to "pause" PAR creation, save the intermediate results to disk and resume later.
* Allow drag selection and use of the delete key in the listbox when selecting the files to create recovery data file.
* Support Unicode filenames.
* Support reading from partly unreadable files (e.g. a file on a CD with a scratch).
* Allow the selection of an alternate location to put repaired files (e.g if the originals are on CD).

Known problems:

* When repairing files, all recovered files are placed in the same folder. If the original files were in multiple folders and include some with duplicate names, then they will be renamed so that they have a distinguishing number added to the end of their filenames.

Please use the Tracker at Sourceforge to report problems:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=add&group_id=30568&atid=560745

Please use the forums at PArchive for any other feedback and
discussions.

http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=30568

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Best regards,
Peter B Clements