Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Rectifying “End-of-central-directory...” Error While Opening Zip Files

Zip file is one of most common ways of saving your hard drive space. A normal Zip file contains numerous files and directories stored in arbitrarily format. The file format of any Zip file, however, is sequential and consists of an extended file header, central file directory, and local file header. Corruption of any one of the three components of a Zip file format results in an error message, which makes the data saved in the file inaccessible. In such cases, if the user needs to access the Zip file, then s/he needs to restore the Zip file from a valid backup. However, in case of backup inaccessibility, unavailability, or corruption, the user needs to opt for a commercial repair zip file application.

A detailed analysis of the above problem can be explained with the help of the below error message:

“End-of-central-directory signature not found. Either this file is not a zip file, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive ”

The above error message appears when you try to open a Zip file. After the error message appears, the Zip file becomes unreadable.

Cause:
The above error message appears when the central directory structure of the Zip file is corrupted or damaged. Few major reasons responsible for the corruption of central directory structure can be improper system shutdown when the Zip file is open, virus attack, and problem with network.

Resolution:
To get over the above error message and to unzip the Zip file, in case of unavailability of backup, you need to search for a powerful third-party Zip File Repair tool. Such repair utilities are most effective in repairing all kinds of logically corrupted Zip files. The repair applications can repair zip files in few simple steps and also allow the user to restore the repaired file at required destination. In addition, these tools are built with a wizard-style interface that makes them easily understandable, even for those without any prior zip file repair experience.

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