newbie question - cant seem to grasp 7zip, quickpar ect...please help

[n.shift]

i understand how to download the files, move the files to a folder along with the par2 file. The issue is, after that, I open up quickpar. move all the files from my folder to quickpar. at this point, the only option I have is to "create". there is no "repair" button. I'm AT a total lose here. can someone please point me to instructions on this entire process. I have read but the only instructions I can find are as follows:
1. download all files and the par2 file to same folder
2. make sure quickpar is installed(which it is). double click the par2 file. It should only take a few seconds to scan. press repair button when prompted. ( issue is, I double click par2 file from the folder I created and nothing happens. I manually move all files from folder I created to quickpar and then double click par2 file, still nothing happens. I have to repair button. all I have is a create button. I click that andit seems to change files up a little but im still at a loss on how to retrieve iso file)
3. I believe after I do the above description, I do get a RFEE.rar file but still cant seem to extract the iso from it. Iam using "WinRAR" to extract my zip files. ther version of quickpar im using is 0.9.1. I'm thinking maybe the format on the program changed from last time instructions on proper use was wrote... I NEED HELP!. THANKS ALL IN ADVANCE

[killapinke]

Make sure all archives are extracted to new folder then try...thats just guess

[deadlegion]

Don't bother with winrar, just use the latest version of 7zip from the official site:
http://www.7-zip.org/
Remember to check there for new version every now and then so you can stay updated. This program has better archive compatibility and it's completely free.

Winrar (generally but depends on what has been updated) has less compatibility plus not only do you have to check for new versions but free versions are trial so you have to mess around with that. It also has a stupid default of associating itself with all sorts of file types so if you're unaware of what's going on you're trying to extract contents of iso images etc thinking they're rar archives (because the rar archive icon gets attached to all sorts of files).


For parchives just make sure you have all the archive parts for a share and the relevant par2 in the same folder/directory, you double click the par2 to start the process.
Here's a guide:
http://www.epforums.org/showthread.p...Using-QuickPar

Obviously you need quickpar installed (or an equivalent if you're using OSX or whatever).

[skullpoker]

you double click the par2 to start the process.

Would you please color this part and make it [b]bold[\b]? Took me a few minutes to figure this part out, and that you need to download the other link.

[deadlegion]

Nope. You can read stuff more than once and/or get someone else to read it to you if you want to be sure you understand. The guide isn't a giant wall of text.

[n.shift]

I understand the instruction. easy to follow. My problem is when I double click the par2 file nothing happens except a little window pops up like there is noway of opening the file. Its like quickpar is not responding or recognizing the file. is there something I need to do to make the program recognize the file?
1. I download par file and all other associated files.
2. I place them all in same folder.
3. I open folder and double click par2 file. And nothing happens. I have the latest version of quickpar. is WinRAR my problem?

[Zorlon]

Might be worth posting some screen grabs of the folder with all the files you have and the process with quickpar

Sounds like you are missing something important

7-zip is the best option but as there are issues before you should even be extracting I don't see how it could be an issue yet though if you are not using yet

Though the first post is to hard to read as it is just a block of text, so I may be missing some important info

[Ragnar]

I understand the instruction. easy to follow. My problem is when I double click the par2 file nothing happens except a little window pops up like there is noway of opening the file. Its like quickpar is not responding or recognizing the file. is there something I need to do to make the program recognize the file?
1. I download par file and all other associated files.
2. I place them all in same folder.
3. I open folder and double click par2 file. And nothing happens. I have the latest version of quickpar. is WinRAR my problem?

You already said you were missing the point and saw a lot of creation options, so I'm guessing you made your own par2s. Delete all the par2s you have, grab the par2 from the download page again and try it following the guide.

[okay]

I am new here and have never downloaded anything from this particular forum, but I will give you and explanation of the concepts behind using zip, rar, par, and par2.

Most likely when you see these types of files, they were first posted in newsgroups. Think of newsgroups as a worldwide message board with almost no moderators. Virtually ANYTHING can be posted there. That is the good thing. The bad thing is everything is in text (no graphics) and newsgroups is reliant on your provider. With a good provider, you get the full newsgroups and all the posts. With a bad provider, you get missing sub-groups and/or missing posts. The missing posts is why par and par2 were introduced.

Other than individual pictures, attachments (files) posted to newsgroups are either in .zip or .rar. Usually zip's are for relatively small files because the user has to manually extract files individually. With rar's, the user just double-click the rar and the program is able to extract to whole archive all at once. If you have files broken into hundreds of parts, no way will the file get posted as zip's.

Here is an example of a file that would be posted:

freeware.part01.rar (30/30)
freeware.part02.rar (30/30)
freeware.part03.rar (30/30)
freeware.part04.rar (30/30)
freeware.part05.rar (30/30)
freeware.rar (12/12)

Each of the parts are further broken down into pieces. Here, it is 30 pieces for all except the last one which has the remaining 12. Let's say you downloaded everything that was available to you and the best you could do was:


freeware.part01.rar (29/30)
freeware.part02.rar (29/30)
freeware.part03.rar (29/30)
freeware.part04.rar (29/30)
freeware.part05.rar (29/30)
freeware.rar (12/12)


Because you have parts missing, it would have been a waste of time to even attempt to download the file if there were no repair options. First attempt to repair was the introduction of par's.

freeware.part01.par (30/30)
freeware.part02.par (30/30)
freeware.par

With just two full par's, but you could not repair the file because 1 par can only replace 1 whole file. In the above case, you would need 5 par's to fix the broken pieces.

Introducing par2's. Par2's are not limited to fixing whole files. They can fix missing parts within a file. In the example, you have five pieces missing. If you can download some of the following, the whole download is repairable.

freeware.par2
freeware.vol0+1.par2
freeware.vol1+2.par2
freeware.vol3+3.par2

The freeware.par2 is what you would double click. The number after the "+" tells me how many pieces of that file that can be fixed. Therefore if you just downloaded freeware.vol1+2.par2 and freeware.vol3+3.par2, that would be five pieces to fix the download.

I am telling you all this because the only time I have ever seen people posting the required par2 files for repair purposes is on the newsgroups. You don't see corrupt downloads on the web which is why nobody ever includes files like freeware.vol3+3.par2 that are required by Quickpar to fix the file. If posts here do have extra par2 files for repair, that is good thing though I am surprised.

[okay]

So, the proper way to repair the above example would be to put all these files together in a folder:


freeware.part01.rar (29/30)
freeware.part02.rar (29/30)
freeware.part03.rar (29/30)
freeware.part04.rar (29/30)
freeware.part05.rar (29/30)
freeware.rar (12/12)
freeware.vol1+2.par2
freeware.vol3+3.par2
freeware.par2

Then double click freeware.par2. Quickpar will open and count how many pieces are missing. And since you would have enough par2's to fix the file, the REPAIR button will be enabled and you can fix it so you have a complete download.

[Warrior]

Its normally pretty simple and straightforward with Par2 repairing but sometimes people get some issues on a repair job, it has happened to me as well on a few instances and no amount of new repair blocks would finish the job and make it say 100%.