For those with limited experience, I will go over the types of files one encounters when downloading files from typical trackers. What they are, What to do with them, Why they exist, etc. Lets start with basics.

Archives.

  • .zip is an archive, kind of like a box with the files inside. Use any archive program to extract the files.


  • .7z is a 7Zip archive. They are similar to zip however the compression is usually far better and more often than zip files these will be password protected. 7Zip, Winrar, etc can open the file.


  • .rar is a file normally associated with Winrar, arguably the best compression and security in the group this filetype is common for large files as the size can be decreased quite a bit through compression. These files may be .rar or several files generally ending in .r01, .r02, .r03, etc. If that is the case it's generally referred to as a split rar and is very common for scene releases. Winrar will only associate itself with up to .r29 in windows however when you extract one of them it will generally extract them all in one fell swoop.

What do I do with these files?



Extract them to get the files inside.

CD/DVD Images.


  • Bin/Cue is a common format for CD images. There will be two files one a .Bin and the other a .Cue (binary and cuesheet). The .cue will contain information about as well as the name of the .bin. These are less and less common as other formats have taken over. NOTE: if you have a problem and it says the bin does not exist, open the cue file in Notepad and see if the filename is the same as the .bin file, if it isn't change the filename to match.


  • ISO is another more common format for a CD/DVD image, one file containing the full image of the original media. Can be opened in WinRar, however not commonly the best way to use this filetype. The ISO file can be naked (without other files) or with other files (ex. MDS)


  • MDS files are similar to cue files and are for some CD/DVD burning programs to see some characteristics of the ISO or MDF file such as the original physical media layout.


  • MDF files can sometimes be used with MDS, they are commonly created by a program called Alcohol 120% and are essentially just binary files containing the image of the optical media.

What do I do with these files?

They can be mounted via a virtual drive (ex. Daemon Tools) to show up as though there is a disc in a CD/DVD rom drive or burnt to a disc. These files are usually going to be for large applications and movies. You may see them as DVDR, DVD5 or DVD9

DVDR pretty much means it's an image ready to be burnt to a disc. DVD5 is a reference to the single layer DVD and it's capacity whereas DVD9 is a reference to a Dual Layer DVD and it's capacity. For more information use Wikipedia.

Video Files


  • AVI
  • DIVX
  • XVID
  • MPEG/MPG
  • MKV
  • RAM/RM
  • QT
  • WMV

What do I do with these?

Audio Files.


  • MP3
  • MP4
  • FLAC
  • WAV
  • AIFF
  • WMA


What do I do with these?

Other Files.


  • SFV is a filetype used to verify data. Generally included in scene releases and releases of open source software. Several programs can be used to check the data against the SFV file.


This is a work in progress, it will be finished when time permits. Likely tomorrow.