Hex viewer: two problems (maybe) Aligning Bytes

[ed800uk]

...and even when the files are identical.

I am comparing three huge 98Mb downloads. Hopefully only one differs, and that one must have become corrupted somehow.

I have set the Hex Viewer's Synchronization Settings to No Alignment.

There are two unusual things happening:

1. I get a message which keeps me waiting for a while, saying Aligning Bytes. This happens even when the files are identical!

2. If I select Cancel from the Aligning bytes message, then the files are displayed without any differences being displayed, even when they are NOT identical.

Now obviously the workaround is to be patient and not Cancel the Aligning Bytes action. But if you don't know this and you do Cancel, and you have forgotten that the files differ, then you could falsely assume that they are identical.

Best regards,
Ed

[Chris]

Re: Hex viewer: two problems (maybe) Aligning Byte

1. The Aligning Bytes message does show up even if No Alignment is turned on. I think this displays while BC is processing the contents of the files for comparison in addition to doing alignment. We'll try to come up with a less confusing name for this dialog in a future version of the Hex Viewer plug-in.

2. If you cancel the display isn't going to be valid, I'll add making this clearer to our todo list for the Hex Viewer.

If you only need to find out which file is different, comparing in the Folder Viewer using Actions|Compare Contents for a binary comparison will be much faster than using the Hex Viewer.

[ed800uk]

Re: Hex viewer: two problems (maybe) Aligning Byte

Chris,
To keep the question short, I did not explain why I wanted to see the differences, but it was of course to try to get some insight into the corruption, and hence to help to assess at which stage in the transfer processes the corruption might hve happened. (It seemed strange to me that the file size could be correct, while the contents were bad.)

Anyway thanks for the quick response!

Best regards,
Ed