turning off re-downloading first chunk

[eReMBee]

When I continue after a break, Newsbin 6.21 does re-download the first chunk of every file in the download list.
Can this be turned off? Cause doing this on hundreds of parts (and dozens of gigabytes) easily takes up half an hour and in the meantime the actual download doesn't start.
I wonder what the use of this re-downloading is, anyway. To me, it's annoying and time and bandwidth consuming.

[Quade]

Why aren't your downloads clearing the download list? It's an issue because you have a bunch of unfinished downloads in your download list.

Is the problem that your machine can't keep up with the unrars? I'm just trying to figure out why you have so many already downloaded sets still sitting in the download list. Ideally, you'd only have a file or two to check the first chunk on. That's what I typically see here.

[eReMBee]

The whole download is just one post, so there is nothing the clear. The following happens:
I have a post of say 50GB, consisting of 500 parts of 100MB. After downloading the 250th part I shutdown Newsbin. After restarting, Newsbin re-downloads every first chunk of every already downloaded part. This will take a long time and newsbin won't start where it left off until all files are checked this way. So, I would like to turn off this re-downloading of the first chunks, as I don't see the point of it and it takes up a lot of time and bandwidth.

[Quade]

Is it a slow connection? A chunk is 300-600K so, at 10 Mbps it should take 60 seconds to clear the first chunks.

So, I would like to turn off this re-downloading of the first chunks, as I don't see the point of it and it takes up a lot of time and bandwidth.

It's for Autopar so, autopar knows and verifies what's on disk before it moves on.

[eReMBee]

Normally, I have a steady 16 Mbit/s at 10 connections, but during the re-downloading it seems to be much slower, around 1-2 Mbit/s. Don't know why.

I understand that Autopar is verifying what's already on disk, but why the re-downloading? Even with Autopar turned off, the first chunk is still re-downloaded, which makes even less sense.
Besides, Quickpar also verifies what's on disk, but when I stop that program halfway and restart it, it remembers what it already checked, which saves time.

Something totally different, when I quit Newsbin halfway a download and restart it, the RAR it was working on during quiting will always be incomplete. This happens every time.
If I delete that RAR to force Newsbin to download it again, it will be complete.

[DThor]

Regarding the slow speed when picking up an old download, I'm guessing you're watching newsbin going through the existing chunks on disk at the same time it's snagging new chunks. In other words, it's doing exactly what it's supposed to - using what's already downloaded.

It might be a good idea to not download the first chunk with autopar off, yeah.

I don't want the 'smart' behaviour of quickpar since what's going on is a lot more dynamic, chunks being grabbed potentially from several sources. I'd rather have the security of a proper test, rather than relying on a saved file that may or may not be out of date. Bottom line is, you can't please everyone. It's always a balance between getting complete downloads without having to intervene, and downloading a few extra chunks to ensure that happens. Most people with highspeed connections don't care about the odd chunk when you're talking about restarting the application. Some, like you, want just what you want and not a byte more, and are willing to micromanage (i.e. not use autopar) to meet that end. Fair enough. Maybe autopar off shouldn't do any extra downloading at all.

As far as the rest of your experiences, I don't know what's going on. I never have incomplete rars when it's in progress and you restart newsbin, that sort of renders the restart feature pointless. I'm wondering if you have a problem with your downloads.db3 file? When your queue is empty, quit Newsbin and delete that file, see if that makes a difference.

DT

[Quade]

Something totally different, when I quit Newsbin halfway a download and restart it, the RAR it was working on during quiting will always be incomplete. This happens every time.
If I delete that RAR to force Newsbin to download it again, it will be complete.

I've seen reports of this but, not been able to make it happen here. I have this 3GB rar file I test with on my test server. I'll try again. Let me characterize it and I'll suggest ways to trouble-shoot this.

While the first part scan is happening. What's happening down in the "cache" line?