Computers... Help Please?

[Pale Wolf]

Bleh. Here's the story.
I'm trying to get the torrent of Nanoha - I've successfully downloaded most of the episodes, but something seems to keep going wrong on 5/6. I've performed the download twice now, both times those episodes were incomplete and nonplayable, and my Bittorrent seems to be refusing to download the last sliver of the torrent.
I'm uncertain as to why it won't download, so I've attempted to do about all I know how to - I figured it might be because the earlier download attempts left the files on memory, so I tried to delete them all. I still can't confirm that theory, though, since episode five is stubborn and won't let itself be deleted - it keeps claiming the file is in use, which blocks me from doing anything to it (I've taken it off the torrent window already), and the incomplete section folder won't let me rename it (I was trying to set that up so the next download attempt would create a new folder for the incomplete stuff and ignore the defect).
Help? Please? I have cookies! And you people've been waxing enthusiastic over this series for months.

[lwf58]

Torrents are one of the easiest ways to get episodes, so your method is okay. To delete the file that says it's "in use", you may need to restart your computer because a TSR is somehow accessing it. (TSRs are programs that run in the background without showing themselves to you.) If a simple restart doesn't allow you to delete it, restarting into safe mode will.
If you still can't get a good download after deleting the old file, it's most likely a bad file being passed around. That's happened to me numerous times. Another option may be to download it from newsgroups instead; they usually break the file up into compressed chunks and include parity files so that you can check them for completeness, and will often have files so that the download is self-repairing if you have the right programs. The newsgroups will usually have a read-me file recommending which programs to download and use.
A final option is to pay for access to an FTP service. My ISP chokes my bittorrent access, so I'm signed up with two. FTP services give you a complete file like bittorrent, but you don't have to worry if any seeds or peers are on; if it's there, you can download it. This is usually just as fast as torrents, or in my case, faster than torrents.

[Battlekrome]

there is always starting torrent and selecting just the errored files to download
another is to scan files with gspot or other video file analyzer
to find out if they are corrupt or just slightly borked but just need a minor fix

[Pale Wolf]

Thanks for helping out, guys.
Restarting the computer somehow not only made episode five possible to effect, but it actually played right, too. So now I'm still working on ep 6 - which seems stuck at 99.5 percent. It's never been able to go above, and it seems to be failing again this third time.
Nanoha fans: does anything happen in episode six? I'm seriously getting frustrated enough to try skipping it. Or is there any other torrent that you guys know of? I'm using the original one from Triad, but having no luck.

[lwf58]

Listing for legit torrents can be found at downloadanime.org. They list pretty much everything that's being fansubbed and not licensed in the US, and by all groups.
Two tips: if a torrent only gets so far and stops, make sure there are seeds online. You may only be downloading from peers.
You may want to try uTorrent as a client. The latest versions have a function (which may or may not work through your ISP) that searches for all uTorrent users online and gets missing parts from them if possible. It may be enough to get you past the sticking point.

[Pale Wolf]

Two tips: if a torrent only gets so far and stops, make sure there are seeds online. You may only be downloading from peers.

Ugh. 8 seeds at this point, unfortunately.

Listing for legit torrents can be found at downloadanime.org. They list pretty much everything that's being fansubbed and not licensed in the US, and by all groups.

... Damnation. I've checked it and apparently the only copy of the torrent is the one from Triad.

You may want to try uTorrent as a client. The latest versions have a function (which may or may not work through your ISP) that searches for all uTorrent users online and gets missing parts from them if possible. It may be enough to get you past the sticking point.

Sounds like it might be my only option... Do you know where I could get it?
And does anyone else know of any other ways to get the episode? Or if it's just filler that I can safely skip?

[lwf58]

That's a mystery, then. If you have lots of seeds and peers, the only other thing I can think of that may be going wrong is that one of the packets may be failing hash check. Have you checked the download properties to see if that's the case?
Anyway, uTorrent can be found at http://www.utorrent.com/

[Pale Wolf]

... Can... you give me the complete moron's explanation? Sorry.

[lwf58]

When a bittorrent client downloads the packets of info that get put together to make the file, it checks to see if they are good or have been corrupted somehow. If it runs across a bad packet, it tries to download it again, on the assumption that it got messed up in transit.
Depending on your client, you should be able to right-click the download window or the line in the download window, or there may be a link to click. You can find all sorts of info by exploring the reports and controls. I was asking if you had checked to see the window that shows the packet download status, which should tell you if your client is downloading the same one over and over again.

[iiradned]

:oops:
... Can... you give me the complete moron's explanation? Sorry.

The 'net moves data about in packets.
All data files(pics, video, very large files, web pages) are chopped up into two or more parts called packets. Each packet is furhter subdivided with parts for addresses for sender and receiver, which file is being sent, the actual data, which part of the file this packet is (say part 5 of 15) and some error checking data.
The packets are then sent to make their own way to their destination. Thus packets can bounce from London to New York to Tokyo to wherever before arriving at their final destination sometimes out of order. Since data moves on the net at the speed of light all this bouncing around usually lasts a very, very short time.
The receiving program (whether by email, web download, FTP transfer or torrent) then reassembles all the packets as they come in. If they come in(using the above 15 packet example) as part 15, 12, 1, 3, 2, 4, 6, 8, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13 and 14, the program reassembles them in the proper order and when part 5 comes in it will be plugged in at the proper place.
The receiving program also performs error checks to see that each packet is what it says it is and that parts have not gotten lost or changed. This error checking is done by using all the error checking data from all the packets. If any errors that crop up are minor, the receiving program corrects the error and the file is reassembled correctly and presented to the user.
If however very large errors crop up, the receiving computer can ask the sending computer to resend a particular packet. This is because both sending and receiving computers talk to each other while the data transfer is taking place and until both are satisfied all the proper packets are sent over does the transfer stop.

[Pale Wolf]

Depending on your client, you should be able to right-click the download window or the line in the download window, or there may be a link to click.

Not obvious on my client, I don't think - I'm using BitTorrent, I think.

I was asking if you had checked to see the window that shows the packet download status, which should tell you if your client is downloading the same one over and over again.

The only control I see like that is the Torrent Info window. It doesn't seem to state precisely which packet is being downloaded, unfortunately. It always seems to end the download with a sliver of the bar remaining - the missing .5 percent of episode six, I assume.
Well, with luck I'll have it sometime soon - I have BitTorrent and uTorrent both downloading it simultaneously. Where skill fails, redundancy triumphs.

[Chirishman]

=_= using two programs simultaneously might be your problem. Anyway, Azureus is pretty much the undisputed best Bittorent client (by anyone who has ever used it). It's on Sourceforge and it got best overall project of 2006. It's Java so it works on Macs, PCs and Linux.

[Pale Wolf]

Haha! uTorrent pulled it off! Thanks lwf58!

=_= using two programs simultaneously might be your problem.

Nah, I only used the two simultaneously after using just the one failed three times consecutively