Theory
The problem with errors in AVI files is that there is no tool to fix them properly. If you want to get a good file you have to delete it and download it again. That was before TotalFix. This program allows you to re-download just the part that is broken (often no more than 100kb).
This is how TotalFix works:
This is a broken avi file - the green parts are good and only the red part is bad. We use DivFix to find out where in the errors lie.
With Total fix we copy the first good part into a new file (file.QQQ)
Then you open your file sharing program and resume the download to this file. Around 100kb should be enough in most cases (a few seconds with broadband)
This is what we have now - the blue part is newly downloaded (hopefully without errors)
Now the program copies the rest of the file after the blue part from the original (broken) avi file.
That's it. You can delete the original file and you have an error-free avi file.
Usage
First you have to determine if and where your file is broken.
DivFix is a free utility that will help you with that. You can check your whole
avi collection at one time with the newest version of DivFix.
Select the first error line and press: CTRL+C to copy it (you could use the
right mouse button with older versions of DivFix).
Now let's fire up our TotalFix. Click on the "Browse" button and load
the avi file. Then paste (CTRL+V or Right mouse click & paste) into the
edit box. Then click on the "Split" button. It could take some time
to copy the old file so be patient.
Tip: put TotalFix in the folder where you keep the avi files and Drag&drop "file.avi" to "TotalFix.exe". That way you don't have to push "Browse" button.
You will see that there is a strange new file on your disk:
Now go to your P2P program and resume this QQQ file. In most cases you don't have to download more than 200kb. Here is an example for DC++:
When you're done open TotalFix again. Select the QQQ file you want to work on and press "Merge back". You'll probably have to wait for some time.
Done! Now you have 2 files: the broken "file.avi" (you can delete it) and the fixed "file-.avi".
Of course the file can have more than one error (like on our first picture of DivFix). If error offsets are close together then you can re-download a larger part and fix more errors at one time. But if the offsets are far apart it's best to go through all the procedure for every error.