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Step
5 has the following sections:
See Figure 1
which is referred to throughout this tutorial.
Introduction
to Extract/UnRAR Binary Files
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- Table
of Contents
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Does
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Most large
binary files are posted to a binary usenet group in chunks which are
created using WinRAR. WinRAR is a compression program similar to the
more commonly known WinZip. After downloading a set of RAR files you
need to put them together into a binary file that you can use.
Decompressing
the parts and reconstituting the original binary file is
pretty straightforward. Once you have all the parts the decompression
software pretty much does its job automatically.
However, if
any of the RAR files is damaged or missing segments you need to either
get replacements or repair (or recover) them before you can proceed
further.
Read the
NFO file and use the SFV file that accompanied the post to find out
what files you need, and what you need to do to replace or recover
missing or damaged parts.
NFO and SFV Files Top - Table
of Contents
These files
are your instructions to help you determine what or how many parts make
up a movie, TV program or other binary file post. READ THEM FIRST!
NFO
Files
- Before asking for reposts and
asking questions READ THE NFO FIRST!
- They are usually posted first,
before all the parts of the post.
- NFO is short fo "info" (get it ...
info without the i).
- Contain instructions on how you can
recover binary files or get reposts.
- Indicate size and number of parts
in the binary file post.
- You can open an NFO file using
Windows Notepad (it is just a text document) you can just change the
file extension to .txt. WinRAR also has a built-in viewer.
SFV
Files
- They are usually posted first,
before all the parts of the post.
- Are an index of the posted files
and can be used to check the RAR sets for integrity using, amongst
other programs, WinSFV (see link to right or go to download.com to get
this program).
- You can open an SFV file using
Windows Notepad (it is just a text document) to quickly check of the
number of parts and their size.
- With the more recent frequent use
of PAR files, SFV files are becoming redundant in terms of their use as
an archive checker.
WinRAR
RAR Sets Top - Table
of Contents
Referring
to Figure 1, the
parts are usually RARs created by WinRAR.
WinRAR
creates a set of files of equal size with a smaller last file which
basically contains the "left-overs".
This set of
RAR files will be numbered sequentially. The first file in a RAR set
ends with .rar and the following RAR files are numbered sequentially
beginning with the second RAR file in the set is .01, the third RAR
file is .02, etc as illustrated below:
1st file in
set: filename.rar - 10 MB
2nd file in set: filename.r01 - 10 MB
3rd file in set: filename.r02 - 10 MB
4th file in set: filename.r03 - 10 MB
Last file in set: filename r.04 - 9.5 MB
Occassionally,
the RAR file extension numbering is different. For example, the RAR set
could start with filename.r00 instead of filename.rar. Don't worry, it
will work just the same. You simply need a complete set of files in
order to reconstitute the original file. The nfo file or sfv file
posted will list the entire set of RARs posted.
To extract
the binary file from the RAR set, you simply doubleclick on any of the
RAR files and follow WinRAR's instructions. Alternatively, you can open
WinRAR, and then open the folder with all the RARs and select them all
and click Extract. It is very easy. If you encounter any errors it is
likely that the RAR set has corrupt RARs which have damaged or missing
segments.
Use PAR
files or .rev files or WinRAR file repair to recover missing RARs and
repair those RARs with missing or damaged segments (see below).
Repair
Damaged and Missing Segments
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- Table
of Contents
If any of
the segments for a RAR file in a RAR set are missing or damaged you
will not be able to extract the binary file inside. As discussed in the
previous Step 4:
Download from Binary Usenet there are any number of reasons
why a posted binary file may have damaged or missing segments.
There are
three ways to get replacements for missing or damaged messages:
- Wait
Patiently - Waiting patiently for the poster to finish his
post or for the news server to get all the segments.
- Ask for Repost -
Asking the poster to repost just the missing or damaged segments.
Often, somebody will nicely repost the whole movie or episode. Just
wait a day or two.
- Sign-up
with one of the popular Newsgroup Service Providers - if your
ISP's newsgroups don't have any binary usenet groups or have poor
retention buy Usenet access from Affiliate goes here,
a popular news service provider.
There are
two ways of recovering missing or damaged messages:
- PAR, PAR2 &
PAR3files - are a godsend. After a set of RAR's or binary
files are created, the poster creates a second set of files called PAR
files that contains information that can help recover missing files.
See below.
- WinRAR Repair Feature
- WinRAR has a feature to recover damaged or missing RAR's however, the
poster has to include a recovery record with his set of RAR's. See
below.
PAR
Files Home
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of Contents
PAR is
short for PARity Volume Set. Essentially, PAR files are used to verify
that a set of files are not corrupt and reconstruct the set of files
providing that enough PAR files have been provided. The primary
intention of the Parity Volume Set is to eliminate some repost requests
in binary usenet groups.
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Does
your ISP's news server have poor content and retention?
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|
Affiliate goes here
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First there
was PAR, now there is PAR2 and PAR3. They all serve the same purpose,
ie veryifying and recovering lost and damaged files but there are some
significant differences in the way they do this. You can read more
about these differences at sourceforge.net.
The basic
concept for using PAR files follows.
- For example, someone posts 10 RAR
volumes to a binary group. But for a variety of reasons not everyone
gets all of them. One person may be missing r01, another missing r06
and a third person is missing r04.
- Usually, these three people would
each have to ask for reposts of the missing files. But using PAR, the
poster would create a parity volume set based on the 10 original RAR
files which is posted along with the RARs.
- Then the each person who is missing
RAR files can download the PAR file and use it to recover the missing
file(s) that they need ie, one PAR set posted can be used by all three
people to reconstruct different missing files, as required.
- The benefit is that a one-time post
of a PAR file set eliminates the need to repost 3 RAR's.
PAR
software:
Read more
about PARchives on this site:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/parchive
REV
Files Top - Table
of Contents
You don't
see .rev files often and that is probably a good thing because they
take a long time to recover files. They do essentially the same thing
as PAR files but are designed to be incorporated directly into WinRAR.
To use rev
files to recover lost or damaged RARs, you attempt to open the set and
highlight the set and click Repair which will create a recovery record.
Then when you extract as normal, WinRAR will use the recovery to (very
slowly) recover lost files.
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