When it comes to downloading on uTorrent, you want to make sure that you are getting the best quality download as quickly as possible. It seems that in 2021 we have almost been thrown back into the early 2000’s.
Torrenting is back on the rise due to the number of streaming platforms that are now available, so if you are torrenting, you want to make sure that you aren’t wasting data.
What Are Hashfails?
Hashfails is the amount of wasted data in a torrent. It means that in the data you are downloading, there is a block of data that is incorrect so has been discarded. The process of this block being discarded is the wasted data.
Is Wasted Data A Big Deal?
In some cases, the wasted data is a small amount that uTorrent can easily fix by getting that particular block of data from other seeders. This is why P2P is so effective when it comes to downloading content. It means that if there is a hashfail in one download, uTorrent will go and find that missing piece from another seeders version of it. The problem can occur though when what you are downloading isn’t being seeded enough.
What Are The Other Causes Of Wasted Data?
One of the things about uTorrent and P2P sharing is more often than not, we are downloading copy righted content: yes we are all guilty of it. The thing is, as we all know, this isn’t legal and is widely frowned upon. One of the ways that companies try and disrupt sharing of their copyrighted content is through corrupt data blocks. These are what cause the hashfails and the data wastage. Through uploading incomplete or corrupt data files, uTorrent will consistently fail on this error and if all the uploads have this same issue, you will find that you won’t be able to complete the download. Whilst this is rare, this practice is becoming more common with the resurgence of torrenting as a form of getting content on demands.
Is Data Wastage Dangerous?
When data wastage occurs, most of the time it really is a negligible amount. Sometimes it can be as little as a few meg that really won’t impact the speed of the download. It may be that uTorrent has to find another seeder to get the missing data. There are very very rare occasions that people upload damaged files in an attempt to be malicious, but thankfully the software is smart enough to recognise this. It won’t recognise the malicious upload straight away; it will take a few runs of attempting to download the file from the malicious user before it recognises that it is dangerous. On learning this behaviour, uTorrent will then block activity to this seeder and make sure that you don’t seed from them again.
How To Solve Data Wastage
Data waste really is a very limited issue, however there is a way that you can solve it. Before you start making a download on Utorrent, you can change your preferences. You download files from seeders, other users that are sharing the file, this is the backbone of peer to peer sharing. However, if you are downloading a popular file, you’ll find that you can connect to a lot of seeders.
The more you connect to, higher the level of data failure rate, as uTorrent will seek replies from all seeders, when replies aren’t met and blocks of data aren’t complete, this increased the data wastage. Prior to download, change your preferences to a maximum of 2 or 3 seeders. This has been described as the optimum on forums and across reddit. If you are privileged enough to live in an area of good internet connectivity, it really won’t make a lot of difference to you or how much data wastage you have. However, if you live in a remote area with low bandwidth, this may really help you achieve faster download speeds.
Wrap Up
Data fails in uTorrent are part and parcel of the platform and they are there to not only safeguard you against malicious intent, but they are also there to make sure that you get the best quality of download possible. If you are living in an area with a good internet connection and download speed, then data fails won’t impact you when you are using uTorrent. If you are living in an area where your connectivity isn’t that great, then by changing your preferences to only downloading from maximum of 3 seeders, you can reduce the change of data wastage and hashfails.