qb transfers 5GB of empty data to the NAS

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euler
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qb transfers 5GB of empty data to the NAS

Post by euler »

I decided to use a NAS for my torrents so that I can seed them easier.
But I noticed, when I download a 5GB file, then qbit would transfer from my MacBook, 5GB of empty data to the NAS, to create that "empty file".

I can see that in the Activities Monitor: 25MB of data to 30MB of data transferring to the NAS... when the data is all "empty" or all 0's.

Is there a way to avoid that? I already set qbit not to create the whole file when downloading, but it is happening.
Switeck

Re: qb transfers 5GB of empty data to the NAS

Post by Switeck »

That has to be even more brutal if starting a giant 50+ GB torrent...and I'm not sure qBitTorrent is "smart" enough to only try to zero-fill 1 file at a time in a multi-file torrent.
raccoon

Re: qb transfers 5GB of empty data to the NAS

Post by raccoon »

So, the way bittorrent works (all clients) is that it will download real data (and not zeros), and it will write real data (and not zeros), but you must be using a modern filesystem like NTFS in order for only the real data to be written, in fragments. If you are not writing directly to an NTFS filesystem, then your operating system cannot create a SPARSE FILE to store those fragmented data chunks without all the empty zeros.

If you are writing directly to a network share, and it cannot handle SPARSE FILE fragments, then your system is going to create a file from beginning to end with all those zeros that come before the first data fragment that downloaded. So, don't do this. Make sure that you are writing directly to an NTFS volume. Make sure that your operating system sees your NAS drive as an actual factual NTFS filesystem with SPARSE FILE support.
raccoon

Re: qb transfers 5GB of empty data to the NAS

Post by raccoon »

You are better off just buying an external USB portable SSD for your MacBook. SSD costs more, but will last longer than a platter HDD hard disk drive that has to constantly thrash around as it seeks for file fragments to read and write. Modern SSD drives from name brands are good for 600 to 2400 complete rewrites. That is, a 1 TB SSD is good for downloading and dumping 600 to 2,400 terabytes.
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