Contents
Theory
Usage
Step 1 - Copying the good part into a seperate file
Step 2 - Resuming the QQQ file
Step 3 - Merging back with the original file
The problem with errors in AVI files is that there is no tool to fix them properly. If you want to get a good file you have to delete it and download it again. That was before TotalFix. This program allows you to re-download just the part that is broken (often no more than 100kb).
This is how TotalFix works:
This is a broken avi file - the green parts are good and only the red part is bad. We use DivFix to find out where in the errors lie.
With Total fix we copy the first good part into a new file (file.QQQ)
Then you open your file sharing program and resume the download to this file. Around 100kb should be enough in most cases (a few seconds with broadband)
This is what we have now - the blue part is newly downloaded (hopefully without errors)
Now the program copies the rest of the file after the blue part from the original (broken) avi file.
That's it. You can delete the original file and you have an error-free avi file.
In-between-tricky-error:
Rarely, you will find this type of error:
In this case we have a longer corrupt part, that consists of valid AVI frames. All this could happen if someone downloads movie A, resumes download with movie B and resumes with movie A again. These errors are rare because a lot of programs use rollback buffers.
The problem is that divfix reports just 2 errors - where the good (green) and bad (red) parts meet. So you don't relly know if you have 2 small errors (2 broken frames) or 1 large one. If you merge a (divfix checked) good QQQ file with the original file and get an error on the merged file, then you probably have the problem described above. This file is obviously not fixed yet:
Usage
Step 1 - Copying the good part into a seperate file
First you have to determine if and where your file is broken.
DivFix is a free utility that will help you with that. You can check your whole
avi collection at one time with the newest version of DivFix.
Select the first error line and press: CTRL+C to copy it (you could use the
right mouse button with older versions of DivFix).
Now let's fire up our TotalFix. Click on the "Browse" button and load
the avi file. Then paste (CTRL+V or Right mouse click & paste) into the
edit box. Then click on the "Split" button. It could take some time
to copy the old file so be patient.
Tip: put TotalFix in the folder where you keep the avi files and Drag&drop "file.avi" to "TotalFix.exe". That way you don't have to push "Browse" button.
You will see that there is a strange new file on your disk:
Step 2 - Resuming the QQQ file
Now go to your P2P program and resume this QQQ file. In most cases you don't have to download more than 200kb. Here is an example for DC++:
In DC++ search for the avi file you are fixing, right-click on
a user with a free slot and select Download to.. -> Browse
Then select the QQQ file and press the Save button. Download only 100-200 kb
and stop the download. If you want you can then check the QQQ file with DivFix.
In most cases the file will be without errors. There are however some movies
where all people share the broken copy (nobody using TotalFix). You cannot repair
these.
Step 3 - Merging back with the original file
When you're done open TotalFix again. Select the QQQ file you want to work on and press "Merge back". You'll probably have to wait for some time.
Done! Now you have 2 files: the broken "file.avi" (you can delete it) and the fixed "file-.avi".
Of course the file can have more than one error (like on our first picture of DivFix). If error offsets are close together then you can re-download a larger part and fix more errors at one time. But if the offsets are far apart it's best to go through all the procedure for every error.