How to Repair a ZIP File with DataNumen Zip Repair

I admit it's not a common failure, but when it hits, it's true that nothing gets saved. You try to open a ZIP file, perhaps stored on a questionable-quality pen drive or an old optical backup, and the decompressor spits out the alert of corrupt ZIP file. A couple of months ago we shared a guide that will help you put up a fight against those files, but I'd like to add another alternative in the form of DataNumen Zip Repair.

"The file is corrupt." "The ZIP file is invalid." I still remember vividly the time when we had to compress files and split the ZIP into 1.4 MB blocks for transport on floppy disks. And if one of them failed or had a defective block… game over. Pen drives and external hard drives exorcised that demon of the fragmented ZIP forever… or so we thought. Flash memories fail, hard drives break, and there's never a lack of too-quick removal of the drive.

Now, a corrupt ZIP file doesn't have to be the end of the world. Fortunately, there is the possibility of ignoring the damaged section of the file and extracting the rest. Sometimes, that's more than enough for the user, and the best part is that no complex tools are needed. The number one resource to repair a ZIP file or force partial extraction of its contents is WinRAR, however, the web offers very interesting alternatives, among which DataNumen Zip Repair stands out.

How to Repair a ZIP File

There isn't much to configure inside the program. In fact, it behaves like a sort of "fire and forget": you indicate the file to repair, the destination path in case of success, and click on "Start Repair". If all goes well, the recovered files will be saved in the destination folder, with a brief report shown on screen. The other option of DataNumen Zip Repair is batch repair. If you have several corrupt ZIP files (once again, the example of an old CD or DVD fits perfectly here), specify their location, and let the program do the heavy lifting.

Now, how good is it? I decided to test two files. One was so damaged that it couldn't do anything with it, and the other, out of a total of ten images, recovered nine. DataNumen Zip Repair is free and has no limits regarding personal use, but sometimes it shows a certain nagware profile, reminding you of the existence of a premium version. Think of DataNumen Zip Repair as a secondary tool to repair ZIP files, in case WinRAR can't do it.

Official site and download: Click here