Hi, have a music collection stored on a 20GB archos av320, but thought it might be time to backup this music. Each file is mp3 (-aps) in a folder thus. Singles are in folders from a-z, each letter having a seperate folder, each folder containing the singles with which letter they begin (sorry for the very rubbish explanation)

There is a seperate folder for albums and compilations though. (cd's folder). This folder is in the root among the other a-z folders, and inside this folder are folders for each album, within which each album is stored. Let me try to show you

[A]
[B]
Britney Spears - Everytime.mp3
Blink 182 - Title.mp3
[C]
Cher - Believe.mp3
Chad croger - Whatever.mp3
[CD's]
[Alien ant farm]
Track 01.mp3
Track 02.mp3
[Britney spears]
[Snow patrol etc...]
[D]
[E]
.....

Hopefully that might explain it a bit better.

Anyway. my question is, how do i create par2 files for all of these folders/files hopefully storing these par2 files on a SEPERATE dvd? If i use sweep and par2cmdline then it doesnt work because obviously the par2 files have been moved from their origin. Does anyone have a solution??
Thanks, James

Edit: Clearer explanation

bump

I tend to store the files to backed up into a single TAR-archive, relative pathes stored, and to apply QuickPAR on this.

Maybe that's not exactly what you wanted to know, but works for me.

Yeah, that is good and I have thought of that, but it does take a long time to then access the files, if they are archived in this way

Thanks anyway!

Any other ideas anyone?

Try this.

Use QuickPar.

In Windows explorer, right-click the top level folder, then select "search". Use *.FLAC (or whatever) as the search criteria.

When the search is complete, select all of those lossless files and "drag & drop" those into QuickPar.

I really don't know if this will do what you want. I'm trying it right now myself.

yeah iv tried this. its ok, but when you try to verify, it just says missing, because they are not in the same directory

Yeah, I see what you mean. It seems to me that the application should be smart enough to traverse subdirectories. Kinda sucks.

yup, i was kinda lookin for anything else like par2 that does the same job but smarter. seems like there is no such product.

I remember a thread where this issue was discussed and someone presented a command line tool that could use par2 traversing directories...

It's here somewhere (or maybe in the quickpar forum), but I really don't have the time to look for it right now...

Do a search on par2/quickpar/par here and in the quickpar forum and hopefully you'll bump into it.

yeah, it was called sweep. It made par files for each subdirectory, but to me this is usless, because i want to move the par files to a seperate DVD, so when i try to verify them, ill have the same problem in that the par will say that the files are missing, because they are not in the same directory.

Iv written a simple DOS script, that should do i think what im asking it to do. what you think???

sweep par2 c -r12 -n1 *.*
rar a pars.rar -r0 *.par2
del /s *.par2

ok, just tested a few methods. The best way to do it, is not the cmdline cus it is WAY too slow. Use Quickpar to create the pars, and then use cmdline RAR to archive the pars into onesingle rar keeping the directorys, so they can b used later

That does not make sense... don't you have to have your par files easily accessible in case parts of your media get corrupted? I mean directly accessible?

unless I'm missing something...

thats quite true, but i havent yet figured out any other way of preserving the par's directory

anyone else know a way?

why don't you simply leave the par2 data in the same directory and burn them with the directory to dvd/cd ?
In case, the dvd or files are corrupted, you need to extract the dvd content including broken files anyways, eg. by Isobuster.

a par2 guide with sweep for mass-creating par2 data for a lot of directories is at http://www.high-quality.ch.vu , based on the sweep par2 guide, i posted here in that long thread.

You might want to have a look on WinRAR?
Well, it is not free

BTW, if you use WinRAR, then you can play your files directly by plugin in_unpack. Just you have to change the extention to MDR.

What about making the same directory structure on the DVD and copy only the par files without compressing by rar?

The problem with this approach (and any approach involving Sweep) is that each directory has separate recovery data. This means that, if one directory is horribly damaged, the PAR2 data from other directories cannot be used to fix it. I don't think this approach is very good...

The best idea, from a recovery point of veiw, is to have one recovery archive for the entire collection. However, since current PAR2 programs don't do multiple directories (*), I'd say the second-best is to put all the directories in an archive (RAR or ZIP or TAR or something) take the PAR2 of that, then burn the archives.

If you make sure the DVD with the PAR2 data on it is just a little bit more full than any others, then you can recreate an entire DVD if one is lost.

(*) This is a problem with the programs, NOT the PAR2 spec. It is quite possible that a newer version of QuickPar will support them, in which case all your problems will be solved

The problem with this approach (and any approach involving Sweep) is that each directory has separate recovery data. This means that, if one directory is horribly damaged, the PAR2 data from other directories cannot be used to fix it. I don't think this approach is very good...

The best idea, from a recovery point of veiw, is to have one recovery archive for the entire collection. However, since current PAR2 programs don't do multiple directories (*), I'd say the second-best is to put all the directories in an archive (RAR or ZIP or TAR or something) take the PAR2 of that, then burn the archives.

If you make sure the DVD with the PAR2 data on it is just a little bit more full than any others, then you can recreate an entire DVD if one is lost.

(*) This is a problem with the programs, NOT the PAR2 spec. It is quite possible that a newer version of QuickPar will support them, in which case all your problems will be solved
[/quote]



ah, ok, now I understood the question. Previously I thought, the goal would be to extract the par2 data files (created by sweep par2) from each directory and store them separately on another medium in directories with same names/structure.
yes, I requested long time ago, that quickpar gui should have a feature either for mass-par2ing of subdirectories (like sweep), or even better, to create 1 set of par2 data for all directories & subdirectories. Maybe you can talk with par2 / quickpar developer

Peter Clements, the QuickPar developer, says that support for subdirectories is high on his to-do list. I don't know if bugging him any more will help...

Either way, I found a version of the par2 command line program which does support subdirectories for creating PAR2 files. I tested it, and it seems to work OK. However, the verifying/recreating appears NOT to work. You can still use it to create the files in the hopes that something in the future can read them...

You can find the program on the QuickPar forum. There's binary versions available about halfway down the page.

Is there a 2nd source for the par2 version with directory support, since I keep getting an error message:
"Connection to server pacer.dyndns.info failed (Connection actively refused by the server.)"

I uploaded the win32 compile over here.

I had to use quick par to recover some track at outer egde of a bad cd.
Here is how it goes.

I hava cd's with directories and use quickpar to create par2 files for the complete cd. To do this I have to add each directory on the cd, seperately to quick par using add files button. Than some par2 files are created in a directory that I can choose. I pack them with winrar and keep them on a seperate cd. (About 50 megs for a cd)

To recover I decompressed the matching par2 files to a directory, (I had to do this once, so I am not very sure about the directory operations) Than I started adding files from the bad cd until the bar was completely green and
hit the recover button. It took some time but all the files -including the bad ones, on the cd were created on the hard disk. than it was a matter of sorting the files to their directories again.

Quick par's complaint about missing files isn't important.

yes, this is what i wanted, thankyou very much. Raring the files was the only way that i could see possible too, seeing as thats the only thing that preserves the file directory listing. Will be interesting to find out what the new quickpar wil do with subdirs.

Thanks everyone!