btih vs sha1 Torrent Names

[hariseldon1]

I have a folder full of torrents I queued up from last year and now I'm trying to go through them and sort the ones I started from the ones I didn't - wihout any clue what their names are.

The files all begin with either btih... or sha1..., and the two don't appear to be connected as parts of the same torrent. It looks like about half of my torrents are "bith" and the other half begin with "sha1".
What is the difference between the two? Do these different file name beginnings relate to a 'kind' of torrent, a kind of torrent wizard, a display mode, or something else?

Can't find any detail on this in the forum and just curious now that I'm in the thick of trying to restore several hundred gigs of torrent files (with no names or clues to what they are, other than I saved the original torrents). It might not help me in this task, but it would shed some light on the dark mysteries that only the Knights of Shareaza know.

Hari

[ailurophobe]

Some torrent files include SHA1 data for the files, most do not. Shareaza uses it whenever possible since knowing the file hash allows downloading from other networks. Anyway, if the torrent included the SHA1 hashes Shareaza uses those when naming the partials, if it did not it uses the BTIH.

[hariseldon1]

Very interesting.

I noticed you called it "SHA1 data", so I assume this is different than "btih" data, and doing a search for both explains the meaning and differences of these. If I want to create a torrent using the "Torrent Wizard" that comes with Shareaza, does it choose which hash method to use or do I?

I couldn't figure out from what I read which hash method is better, but I assume one is superior to the other.

Hari

[ailurophobe]

BTIH is a hash of the torrent file that identifies the torrent, but not the files in the torrent.
SHA1, ED2K, and TTR are file hashes that identify a file, but tell nothing about torrents, for that you need BTIH (and with Shareaza the entire torrent file to find trackers).

BitTorrent only uses the BTIH, but other hashes can be included in the torrent file and Shareaza can use them to look for sources from other networks. BTIH is calculated from the torrent file, so a torrent always has it.

So it is not a matter of superiority, the hashes are used for entirely different things.

[hariseldon1]

Thanks. It's helping me to understand this.

Recently I upgraded from Shareaza 2.4.0.0 to 2.5.3.0 and when I restarted Shareaza after doing a clean install (which includes temporarily separating the "Incomplete" folder), Shareaza froze while attempting to convert torrents. I received advice from you (to take out all the torrents and see if Shareaza would run, which worked) and from olddeath (to restart each torrent and merge with the torrent files I've removed from the "Incomplete" folder), which I am attempting to follow now.
It is slow-going, because there are no names associated with any of these torrent files I've removed.

Attempting to follow your instructions, I cut all the files from the "Incomplete" folder which I thought were torrent-related: btih, sha1, but not ed2k.

Did I make a mistake removing the sha1 files from my "Incomplete" folder, since they don't seem to be connected to these btih files? Should I simply put them back?

A number of the torrents I have, I had started before I had computer & ISP problems last year, but I don't remember which ones. Studying the new folder I've put the removed torrent files in, I've noticed many of them are listed in kb size but I found one for example at 52.3 GB - the total amount it would be when the download is completed.

When a torrent begins, does it reserve the full amount as if completed - and can I tell from this which ones I've started and which ones I have not?

Torrent #1 - Attempting to follow olddeath's merging instructions, I succeeded in merging one of the torrents. Not knowing the names of these btih files, I identified one by putting the btih file back into Shareaza and reading the name of it when Shareaza froze trying to convert it. I don't think I had actually started this one last year and had only added it to the Transfers page, so merging the running torrent yesterday with the btih files I had from last year probably didn't accomplish much.

I did notice something however. I started with 5 btih files in a separate file outside Shareaza, each ending with:
.partial
.partial.sd
0.partial
1.partial
2.partial

I started the correctly named torrent, and then tried to merge it with one of the btih files I had outside Shareaza (guessing to try the first .partial one). I then noticed that instead of five files, Shareaza created four files in the "Incomplete" folder in Shareaza, each ending with:
.sd
0.partial
1.partial
2.partial

It disregarded the first two files I had, ending with:
.partial
.partial.sd

It either used or recreated the three remaining files I had, each ending with:
0 -2.partial

It looks like it replaced the .partial and the .partial.sd files with one .sd file. Is this a correct observation?

Torrent #2 - I chose another btih file (consisting of two files ending with .partial and .partial.sd) the first one listing at 52.3 GB. I learned the name of it and that when it has completely downloaded, it will be 52.3 GB. I know I had started it, and that's why I suspect that Shareaza reserves the full amount of a completed torrent on the hard drive prior to complettion.
I restarted the torrent inside Shareaza and attempted to merge it with the first of the two .partial files I have outside Shareaza (the one listed at 52.3GB). Does it matter which .partial file a user chooses to merge with?

I have copy of this torrent file, before I attempted to merge it and after, and I can see what happened. It did nearly the same thing as the other file did (Torrent #1 - previously unstarted).

Outside Shareaza, I have two files (these are the files I had with v. 2.4.0.0), ending with:
.partial
.partial.sd

Inside Shareaza's "Incomplete" folder, Shareaza 2.5.3.0 created 201 files, ending with:
.sd
0-199.partial

(I don't know if it stopped at 199 because that's all it needed or because that's the most Shareaza allows and I'll have a problem finishing this one.)

Am I right to assume that for some reason, Shareaza 2.5.3.0 is substituting the .sd file for the two files ending with .partial & .partial.sd?

How does Shareaza decide when and how many of these 199.partial files to add?

A lot of questions I know, but I'm hoping you'll be able to answer some of them.

Hari

[ailurophobe]

I actually explained most of this in the previous threads... The reason there is a torrent conversion that can get stuck is because the way torrent partials are stored has changed. Specifically instead of a single *.partial for the entire torrent, each file in the torrent is stored in a separate *_<number of the file in the torrent>.partial (unless a file hash for the file is known, in which case that is used). The reason you have both types of partials is because the conversion did not complete correctly. So if you copy both new and old type partials Shareaza will notice the torrent has been converted and only use the new type partials. If the new type partials do not exist or are broken Shareaza should recreate them based on the data in the old partial. As a practical matter, if I were in your situation I would simply copy the old type partials in small groups and let Shareaza try doing the conversion. Needs lots of Shareaza restarts, but should be easier. Obviously if the torrent already has new type partials and you can recognize them just copying those is enough. But if you can't recognize the new type partials (because they don't exists or are in the SHA1 format) just copy the old style sd and partials.

The files are group together by the .sd files, so there is only one .sd file per torrent. (Although in your case many torrents are stored twice with two different formats.) So take a .sd, recognize the partials that go with it, and copy them all together for Shareaza to handle. In your case there might be two paired .sd and you have to choose whether to move new style or old style partials or both. The data to recognize the partials and to recognize the torrent should be within the sd files and available with a text editor.

Unfortunately, I do not really know whether the .sd or .partial.sd is new or old style. I think .partial.sd is the old one since starting a new torrent creates a .sd file.