You may see error messages like the file or archive is corrupt when trying to extract files from RAR/ZIP archive file. How to repair corrupted RAR/ZIP files for free to successfully extract the files in them? This post provides 4 possible solutions. To recover deleted/lost files from computer or other storage devices, MiniTool software is top recommended.
If you meet an error message indicating that the archive or file is corrupted when you try to extract RAR/ZIP files, this post offers 4 ways to repair corrupted or damaged RAR/ZIP file, incl. repair corrupted RAR/ZIP file online.
Way 1. Repair Corrupted/Damaged RAR/ZIP File with WinRAR
WinRAR has a built-in file repair function, you can try to use WinRAR to repair corrupted/damaged RAR/ZIP archive file. Check the steps below.
Step 1. Open WinRAR on your computer. In the address bar of WinRAR, you can find the location of the corrupted RAR/ZIP file.
Step 2. Next you can select the corrupted RAR/ZIP file, and click Repair button at the toolbar.
Tip: You can also locate the corrupted RAR/ZIP file and right-click it to choose Open with WinRAR. Then you can click Tools at the toolbar and choose Repair archive.
Step 3. In the pop-up window, you can click Browse to select a destination path or folder to store the repaired RAR/ZIP file, and click OK to start repairing the corrupted RAR/ZIP file.
Step 4. After the repairing process is finished, you can close the file repair window, and open the destination folder to check the repaired RAR/ZIP archive file. The name of the repaired file may be rebuilt.filename.rar or rebuilt.filename.zip.
Way 2. Force to Extract RAR/ZIP Files by Ignoring Errors
After you use the method above to repair corrupt RAR/ZIP files, it still appears the file corruption error message when you try to extract the RAR/ZIP files, WinRAR has an option letting you extract the RAR/ZIP archive by keeping the broken or corrupt files, and ignoring the error messages. Check how to do it below.
Step 1. You can right-click the corrupted/damaged RAR/ZIP file and click Open with WinRAR.
Step 2. In WinRAR window, you can click Extract to button at the toolbar.
Step 3. In Extraction path and options window, you can then specify a destination path to save the extracted files.
Step 4. What’s more, do remember to click Keep broken files option under Miscellaneous in Extraction path and options window.
Step 5. At last, you can click OK button to start extracting files from RAR/ZIP archive, and it will also keep the corrupted or damaged files for you. If you see any error messages popping up, you can just ignore them and continue to extract files.
Way 3. Repair Corrupt/Damaged RAR/ZIP Files with File Repair Tools
You can also use third-party RAR file repair tools to repair corrupted or broken RAR/ZIP archive.
Top RAR/ZIP archive file repair tools include: PowerArchiver, DiskInternals ZIP Repair, Zip2Fix, Object Fix Zip, Remo Repair RAR, DataNumen RAR Repair, SysInfoTools Archive Recovery, Rar Repair Tool, ALZip, etc. Many of them are not free.
Way 4. Repair Corrupted RAR/ZIP Files Online Free
You may also find some online RAR/ZIP archive file repair websites which allows you to upload the source corrupted RAR file and download the repaired file. But the easiest and securest way to repair RAR/ZIP file we’d recommend is still WinRAR.