Software Update: QuickPar 0.9

The QuickPar program has arrived at version 0.9. With this program you can create so-called ‘Parity Volumes’ according to the Reed Solomon algorithm. With these files you are then able to check data for corruption and if necessary you can reconstruct the data again. The following release notes are available:

New features

• When “AutoRepair” is ticked, Files that are missed or damaged (with all blocks available) will be repaired immediatly.
• The Options dialogue now includes checkboxes labeled “Repair Automatically” and “Monitor Automatically”. These control the way the AutoRepair and Monitor Checkboxes in the verification window are set when you first open a PAR2 file.
• When creating PAR2 files, QuickPar can now create split versions of the source files. Source files will be split into sizes that are exact multiples of the block size.
• When creating PAR2 files or using them to repair, QuickPar will now ask for confirmation if you click the Stop button.
• When verifying, QuickPar should now automatically recognize incomplete versions of files created by yDec that end with “(nnn).tmp”.
• When verifying files, it is now possible to right click on files in the file list to access the shell contect menu appropriate for that file. You can also double click a file to carry out the default action (which would normally be to open the file).
• After verifying files successfully (or repairing), it is now possible to create extra PAR2 files by clicking the Extra button. QuickPar will display the dialogue for creating PAR2 files but all settings except those to specify how many new recovery blocks you want will be disabled.
• After a successful Repair, QuickPar will now delete damaged and incomplete data files as well as the PAR2 files that are no longer required. QuickPar will always retain the small “index” PAR2 file. This feature may be configured via the Options dialogue.

Bug fixed

• File renaming and block rejoining did not take place automatically when “AutoRepair” was ticked.
• MD5 and SFV files where the last line does not end with CRLF should no longer result in QuickPar locking up.
• When ReVerifying with SFV or MD5 files, QuickPar would incorrectly reverify files that it had already checked.
• Localized versions of QuickPar would always report “Repair Succeeded in…” in English.
• When F1 was pressed, an error dialogue would appear saying that QuickPar.HLP could not be found. In future then Tutorial pages supplied with QuickPar will be displayed.
• When verifying with SFV or MD5, if any files were present but damaged, the title bar of QuickPar would report this as if the files were missing. It now says “Missing or Damaged”.
• If two or more copies of QuickPar are monitoring the same folder and one of them carries out a repair, the other copies may mistakenly make a full scan of the newly repaired files.
• If the last data block in a file consisted entirely of “0” bytes and that block is damaged, QuickPar would mistakely match a block of data that extends beyond the end of the file. This would result in a repair failure.
• If an SFV or MD5 file was edited (eg to change the filenames) after QuickPar had used it to scan files, QuickPar would ignore the changes and use cached information.
• When creating PAR2 files, it was possible to add the same file to the set more than once. This would lead to a PAR2 set that could not then be used to carry out a correct repair.
• If two or more sets of PAR2 files with the same base filename are placed in the same folder then QuickPar will scan them all for recovery data but those whose set-id does not match the first PAR2 file that was opened will be marked with the words “Wrong Set”. Recovery data in those PAR2 files cannot be used for repair. This also happens if you use the Add button and select PAR2 files that do not belong to the set. The count of recovery blocks found will now correctly reflect what is actually available for repair.
• If you press Escape whilst creating PAR2 files, QuickPar would incorrectly act as if you had clicked the Stop button. It no longer does this.
• If you adjust the height of the verification window or the creation window and exit by clicking the X button on the title bar or the Close option on the system menu, QuickPar would not remember the new height.
• When using Add or Open dialogues whilst creating or verifying PAR2 files, QuickPar would not remember which folder you had used last.
• Comment lines in SFV and MD5 files should no longer be treated as file lines if they contain what looks like a checksum.

changes

• When verifying files, those that have not yet been checked show a gray icon instead of red, green, or amber.
• SFV and MD5 files and now listed as “Checksum Files” rather than as “Recovery Files”.
• When registering File Associations, QuickPar now adds the “AlwaysShowExt” value to the Windows’ Registry to ensure the .PAR, .PAR2, .MD5, and .SFV file extensions will always be visible.
• You are now permitted to create a PAR2 set consisting of only the small PAR2 file with no recovery blocks.
• When creating PAR2 files, if you select the option to have PAR2 files that are all the same size, then QuickPar will permit you specify that more than 30 PAR2 files should be created.

Known problems

• Yenc PowerPost 2000 A&A version 10A creates .par and .par2 files with invalid MD5 Hash values. When QuickPar tries to use them to verify the associated data files, some of the data files may be reported as invalid when they are not damaged. Such files will still be reported as damaged after a repair attempt.
• QuickPar may crash if you try to verify data files using a PAR2 set created with a very large block size (eg 100MB and upwards).