Sometimes you want to download a torrent that you’ve partially downloaded. Many bittorrent client allow partially downloaded files, but what if you’ve downloaded the same torrent twice, with differents parts available?
Use Zeroconf / Local peer
I’ve used two client on the same LAN, ktorrent (on Debian) and utorrent (on Windows XP). I’ve two downloaded files (or folder) from the same .torrent, with different parts downloaded.
- Enable Zeroconf plugin on ktorrent
- Check if on utorrent “Enable local peer discovery” is enabled
- Import existing download #1 on ktorrent
- On debian system, as root type ifconfig to discover your local IP address, i.e. inet addr:192.168.0.XX
- Go to ktorrent preferences and check the used port (e.g. 12345)
- On utorrent go to Peers tab on #2 download. Right-click > Add peer
- Type your first machine IP address (e.g. Debian) and the first bittorrent client port (e.g. 12345 on ktorrent), e.g. 192.168.0.XX:12345 with no protocol prepended.
On both client you’ll notice a new peer, downloading and uploading very fast. Little after, the two downloaded files / folder could be completely merged.
You can now close #2 and continue to download the torrent on a single machine / client from external peers.
Note: I’ve tested this method on the same machine using Virtualbox (Debian as host, XP as guest).
See also:
I had this problem, too, so I wrote a solution. No second computer or second client needed. Just give mergetorrent your .torrent file and two directories where partial files are stored. Then hit merge. I’ve even merged between two different .torrent files that had some files in common.
Thanks Eyal, mergetorrent works fine, and it’s very handy!