How to create par2 files recursively in a batch

I like to protect my movie files on hard drive by creating par2 files. Par2 files protect my files in case they get damaged and can be used as a way to ensure their integrity.

Because par2cmdline didn't work on my system, I decided to use Multipar command line tool par2j download here

I often have many movie files in many directories,creating the par files is time consuming and hard work. This could be done in a batch and just leave it running.

c:\video
...........c:\video\movie_directory_1
.....................movie_file_1.mkv
.....................info_file_1.nfo
...........c:\video\movie_directory_2
.....................movie_file_2.mkv
.....................info_file_2.nfo
... and so on

I also wanted to make the batch low priority, so it would be possible to do other things on the PC at the same time.

1. So first you need to install Multipar. Basically just download the latest version and extract to a directory called c:\Multipar

2. Create another directory called c:\Scripts

3. Create a file called c:\Scripts\par2batch.cmd code :

@ECHO OFF

REM this command script requires Windows 2000/XP

SETLOCAL

REM check input path

IF NOT EXIST "%1" (
ECHO The path does not exist.
GOTO :EOF
)

REM set options for PAR2 client

SET par2_path=c:\Multipar\par2j.exe
rem SET par2_blocks=800
SET par2_redundancy=10

REM recursive search of sub folders

PUSHD %1
FOR /D /R %%G IN (*.*) DO CALL :ProcessFolder "%%G" "%%~NG"
POPD

PAUSE
GOTO :EOF

REM create PAR2 files in each sub folders

:ProcessFolder
PUSHD %1
%par2_path% c -rr%par2_redundancy% -fo -rd2 -lr100 "%~2.par2" *
POPD

GOTO :EOF

ENDLOCAL

4. Next create a file called c:\Scripts\par2batchlow.cmd code:

@echo off
start /low /b parbatch.cmd %1

5. Add the paths c:\Multipar and c:\Scripts to your windows path, in Vista, Start Button, right click Computer, select Properties, select Advanced System Settings, then on the System Properties Window, press the Environment Variables Button, select the "path" environment variable, click Edit

(NB System Properties is also accessible via control panel as "System")

6. Now you can open a Command Prompt window (in Start Menu under accessories).

par2batchlow c:\directoryname

This will create par2 files in each of the subdirectories for all files that are in each sub directory.

The code presented here is modified from code that I found at the QuickPar forum , by the author of MultiPar Yutaka Sawada

I generally have used QuickPar for a number of years (download here), which is an amazing tool. However the par2 command line version I could get to work with large files, and many of the files that I'm working with are 4GB, 8GB and even 16GB for video files, so I decided to use par2j which is newer and currently being worked on.



Hope this is useful for someone, good luck