All Downloads History Deleted :(

[Lol_Joe]

About 2 hours ago, I was downloading multiple torrents simultaneously, and one of them finished. I stopped seeding and moved the file into the folder I want. I tried to play the file, it was an .avi movie, and I got this message about Windows Explorer needing to close or something. This usually happens, it's very annoying, and I have no idea why it happens, but it does. The reason I am here though, is because it caused my computer to freeze up, so I turned off my power, and started it up again (Probably bad for PC). I started up BitComet to continue downloading. Once again, I went to that folder and tried to play the .avi, got the message again, and it froze. So, I turned off the computer yet again, restarted and went to BitComet to find my history gone! Under All Downloads it has (1) (becuase I just started downloading something) and nothing for Downloaded.. However, my torrent archive is still there (377).When I click Torrent Collection it reads "BitComet has not connected to any peer supporting torrent share. Please check it later".

So basically.. under my Downloads folder, it still shows those torrents that I was downloading and never got finished.. but they aren't in my Downloading folder. My problem is that all my torrent history is gone, except Torrent Archive under Torrent Share. I hope you guys can understand my problem and help me.

Using version 1.09

Edited August 21, 2010 by Lol_Joe (see edit history)

[kluelos]

BitComet is just the truck. It's just FedEx. It's not involved with any problems you may have with the merchandise you ordered.

Once the download is complete, BitComet's job is done.

If Explorer crashes every time you start watching an .avi file, this indicates an entirely separate, but probably pretty serious problem with your system that has nothing to do with BitComet. You really do need to find and fix the issue, not ignore it. Be sure to check your system error logs because they can provide valuable clues about what's going wrong.

Windows explorer is basically responsible, as you know, for file handling. BitComet writes its task list into a simple .xml file -- it's called downloads.xml, and you can view it with a text editor like notepad. BitComet relies on calls to the same file-handling routines Explorer uses, to read, write, update that file. If the file gets corrupted or damaged or deleted, BitComet loses its tasklist.

So rather than the one causing the other, it's more likely both are symptoms of the same issue, a problem with those file-handling routines. You have apparently got something, possibly malware, more likely a driver problem, but something, wrong with the system that you really do need to find and fix before you do anything else. Otherwise this all will keep happening.

For your lost tasks, you will need to re-open the .torrents but not start them, do manual hash-checks to make sure they are pointing to the right place and see your partial downloads, then things will be back where they were. You didn't save the .torrent files when you downloaded them? Well. What have we learned here? Anyway, you will need to go back to the index site you got them from (hope you remember where they all came from!) and re-download them. The exact same torrents, not just something with the same name or content, otherwise you'll just have to start your download all over again.

[greywizard]

I remember having a similar issue a few years back. When I simply even as much as selected certain video files my Explorer used to crash. I wasn't able to find a working solution at the time (other then install another copy of the OS :( ) but I remember having read later that this is usually being caused by the video preview function embedded into the explorer shell (the one which makes a little thumbnail of the video appear in the Folder Tasks area).

There was also a modality to disable that, something the likes of which you'll find in this article:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/03/17/how-to-enable-or-disable-media-and-video-thumbnail-preview-in-windows-xp/

Since you're using v.1.19 you may also be lucky enough to have a working .bak copy of the downloads.xml file.

For details on the place where you can find the 2 files read this Wiki FAQ topic: Tasks have disappeared/deleted tasks reappeared in my tasklist after a BitComet restart. How can I fix this?