Resolving 'The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid error...' while opening a zip file in Outlook Web Access

WinZip is an extensively used application to compress large files. At times, when you receive a zip file via e-mail in your Microsoft Outlook Web Access client, you might not be able to open it. You may be restricted by an error, stating the file is either corrupt or invalid. Prominent reasons behind zip file corruption could be abrupt system shutdown, virus infection or more. In such scenarios, you can access the information stored in zip files by either downloading them again or by repairing the damaged zip files. You can repair damaged zip files and extract data from them on your own by using appropriate tools. In order to achieve 100 per cent successful results, you should download a third-party zip repair application.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you use the Microsoft Outlook Web Access client to open a compressed .zip file attachment which you downloaded from MS Exchange Server 2003 computer, and receive the following error message:

“The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid or corrupted.”

As a result of the above error, you are unable to retrieve valuable data from a zip file.

Cause
The above error can be witnessed in the following conditions:

• If your Outlook Web Access front-end server has forms-based authentication enabled
• Or if Gzip data compression is enabled for Outlook Web Access

(The Gzip filter compresses and may corrupt the attachment when the Outlook Web Access client downloads the e-mail from Exchange Server)

Resolution
To resolve this issue, you must consider the following zip recovery steps:

• Obtain the latest service pack for Exchange Server 2003
• Repair the corrupt zip file using a professional zip repair application

These advanced tools repair corrupt zip files, irrespective of the reason behind corruption, and recovers data by applying sophisticated algorithms. Being equipped with simple and graphical user interface, these applications can be efficiently used by users who do not possess technical aptitude.

You can download a repair application for zip files from the Internet. But, do remember to download a read-only utility which doesn't alter or damage the original content stored in zip files.

Error message while extracting zip file on Vista-based computer

When you zip a file, you create a compressed version of the file, which is considerably smaller in size than the original file. The zipped version of the file bears a .zip extension. There are many advantages of using zip files as they save storage space and make e-mail transmissions less consuming time among others. However, these zip files have the tendency to go corrupt and when you try to extract a compressed file, you may get restricted by an error. The error can also surface when you are trying to extract the file on a computer with an earlier version of the WinZip. In both situations, it would become essential for you to recover the inaccessible data using an updated backup. However, in absence of a backup, you can extract the zip file using a professional zip repair application.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you use WinZip to extract a compressed file that has a .zip extension on a Windows Vista-based computer, and you may receive the following error message which goes like:

“This file was compressed using an unknown compression method. Please visit www.winzip.com/wz54.htm for more information. The compression method used for this file is 98. error: no files were found - nothing to do.”

As a result of the above error, you are unable to retrieve the content of the compressed zip file.

Cause
You can witness the above error in the following conditions:

• You are trying to extract a file that was created with WinZip 10.
• You might be using a computer which has installed an earlier version of WinZip
• If you are trying to extract a corrupt zip file

Resolution
You can perform the following zip recovery methods:

• To extract the file, follow these steps in WinZip 10:

1.Click File>New Archive
2.In the File name box, type the name which you want to use for the compressed file and click OK
3.In the Add box, select the files you want to archive
4.In the Compression box, select Maximum (portable), and click Add

If you fail to isolate the issue, then grab an advanced zip recovery application and recover the compressed files without any hassle. Such tools are easy-to-use and do not require any prior technical knowledge.

How to fix corrupt self-extracting zip files

Self-extracting files are executable programs which contain a zip file and a small program to extract the contents of a zip file. You can create self-extracting zip files by using WinZip plug-in. A self-extracting zip file can be opened on a computer which doesn't have WinZip or a compatible extracting utility. However, at certain times, when you try and extract information from a self-extracting zip file, you may receive an error. An error signals a possible corruption in the zip file. Therefore, in order to retrieve information from the corrupt self-extracting zip file, you can either download it again or use the valid backup. If nothing works, it would be required of you to look for appropriate zip repair solutions.

Consider a scenario, wherein, you receive a self-extracting zip file via e-mail, and when you try and extract the compressed files, you may receive the following error:

“WinZip Self-Extractor Header Corrupt. Possible Cause: Bad Disk Or File Transfer Error”

A zip file's header contains all the information regarding the file including file creation date, size and more. In event of header corruption, it becomes impossible to retrieve important information stored in the compressed files.

Cause
The above error could erupt in any of the following conditions:

If a file gets damaged during the download process
If your computer is infected by virus like CIH which has several other names including W95.CIH, Chernobyl, Spacefiller

Resolution
In order to fix the above error, you can try the following zip recovery steps:

• Phone line noises and other factors may disrupt file download, making it corrupt. Hence, you can download the file again to resolve the problem
• If repeated attempts do not yield any results, it shows that your computer may be infected. In such situations, you must run a reliable virus scanner with the latest virus updates. It is a good practice to scan all executable files for viruses.
• If you are still not able to retrieve the files, then you must opt for a professional zip repair software. Such third-party tools scan your corrupt zip files by applying improved scanning algorithms and retrieve your data efficiently.

Repairing corrupted ZIP in Windows XP system

In Windows XP, there is the in-built Compressed (zipped) Folder feature that enables you to compress files and folders in the form of ZIP files. This feature, particularly, helps in decreasing the space on the disk and making it quicker to send the ZIP file to other computers. However, at times some corruption case may rise time and again. Such cases can appear because of various reasons such as virus infections, interruptions while downloading the file, etc. In such cases, you should perform appropriate methods to resolve the issue. However, if you are unable to do so then you should use a third-party ZIP repair software to repair ZIP file.

Consider a scenario wherein you have a Windows XP system. In this, you use the Compressed (zipped) Folders feature to compress your files and folders. One day when you download a zipped file by clicking a hyperlink on a Web page. When you try to extract the ZIP file after downloading it, you encounter the following error message:

“The Compressed (zipped) Folder is invalid or corrupted.”

Cause:
The aforementioned behavior of the ZIP file is possible because of the following two cases:

• The Confirm open after download check box is not selected.
• The link to which the hyperlink is pointing is uses either an ASP (Active Server Pages) or CGI (Common Gateway Interface) file. You open the file from its current location in the File Download dialog box.

In such situations, Internet Explorer does not save the files properly after downloading them to the Temporary Internet Files folder on the hard disk.

Resolution:
To resolve this erroneous situation for both the cases, you should perform the following methods, respectively:
Case 1:

• Open Control Panel.
• Open Folder Options.
• Click the File Types tab and click the .zip extension.
• Click the Advanced button. The Edit File Type dialog box will be displayed.
• Select the Confirm open after download check box, if it is not selected.
• Click OK to save the settings.

Case 2:

• Click the hyperlink, and then click Save when the File Download dialog box is displayed.
• Select a location in the Save As dialog box, and click Save.
• After downloading the file, open the ZIP file and extract the zipped files.

The aforementioned methods would be able to resolve the tricky situation. However, if you still are not able to address the situation then you should use a third-party ZIP recovery software to do the needful for you. Such read-only tools are able to repair ZIP file without overwriting the original contents.

How to Fix WinZip Self-Extractor Header Corruption?

WinZip is a popular file compression utility, that lets you combine several files in a folder and compress them to save disk space. The files are saved with .zip file extension and they can be transferred easily over network. You can also make a self-extractor Zip file by adding a plug-in while creating Zip file. The self-extractor Zip files work like an executable file and automatically get extracted when you double click it. However, in some cases, the self-extractor Zip file may not extract and you cannot access stored data from it. This behavior leads to significant data loss and requires Zip recovery to be fixed.

The WinZip self-extractor file can be extract even if you do not have WinZip application on your computer. In a practical scenario of Zip file extraction problem, you may come across the below error message when you try to extract a self-extractor Zip file by double-clicking it:

“WinZip Self-Extractor Header Corrupt. Possible Cause: Bad Disk Or File Transfer Error”
After the above error message, the extraction process gets interrupted and the contents of Zip file remains inaccessible. In order to extract the Zip file, you must first figure out the root of this problem and then repair Zip file by sorting it out.

What causes WinZip self-extractor header corruption errors?
This behavior of a Zip file may occur if you try to extract the file, which is downloaded from Internet. As stated in the above error message, this problem may occur due to any of the below reasons:

• The file is damaged during the download process.
• Your computer has a virus that has damaged the Zip file.
• If your system is not infected by any virus, then the Zip file itself may have virus.
• The self-extractor file header, which contains all significant information about the file such as file type, file size, and file location, is corrupt and thus WinZip can not read the file.

Solution
In order to extract Zip file in such cases and access data from it, you need to use Zip repair software to repair and restore the damaged Zip file. The applications use powerful scanning methods to thoroughly scan entire Zip file and recover all corrupt data from it. The applications repair Zip archive in a secure and straightforward way, with read-only conduct and interactive user interface.

Recovering ZIP files in case of CRC error in Windows XP

I am pretty sure that you all must have used the file compression tools such as WinZip tools some time or the other. These tools are used to compress the files and folders and save them in a ZIP file. Such tools save a lot of disk space and also useful when sending files over the Internet. However, sometimes these files do get corrupt file doing the file transfer. Other reasons for ZIP file corruption may be virus infections, improper compression process, defective storage media, etc. You should try to repair ZIP file in such cases. If you are not able to repair ZIP file, then you should use a third-party ZIP recovery software to do it for you.

Consider a scenario wherein you are using Windows XP at your office. You create a ZIP file that contains the documents that are part of your research work and bring it to your office in a pen drive. However, when you try to extract the ZIP file at office, it fails to do so. An error is displayed, that is:

“CRC Error”

Cause:
The root cause for this situation is that the ZIP file has corrupted because of CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) errors.

When a file is added to a ZIP file, its CRC value is calculated and added to the ZIP file. When the file is extracted, WinZip again calculates the CRC of the extracted file. It, then, compares it to the earlier value. When these two values are different, then the CRC error message is displayed. Such errors occur due to incorrect file transfer or interruptions in file downloading.

Resolution:
To resolve this problem, you should perform the following methods:

• Click Start | All Programs | Accessories.
• Click Command Prompt.
• Switch to the folder where that ZIP file is located.
• Type: "C:\Program Files\WinZip\wzzip" -yf zipfile.zip and press Enter. The wzzip utility will create a new ZIP file with the same data.
• Extract the new file and check whether the error has been removed or not.

There are chances that the new ZIP file may have sound structure but the data may still be corrupt. For such situations, you should use a third-party ZIP repair software to repair ZIP file. Such read-only tools are able to extract maximum data from corrupted ZIP files.

Repairing corrupted ZIP file after improper download from the Internet

The file compression tools are used to save valuable disk space. These tools save considerable amount of space by using a number of efficient compression algorithms. Usually, the compressed files are saved in a ZIP file extension. These files are extensively used to send across to your contacts either via the Internet or via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). This way, you can be assured that the file does not get virus infections over the Web environment. However, sometimes the ZIP files may get corrupt when you open them after downloading from the Internet. In such scenarios, you should use appropriate corrective measures to repair ZIP file. In case you are not able to perform the desirable ZIP recovery, then you should use a third-party ZIP repair software to do so.

Consider a scenario wherein one of your friends has zipped his vacation photographs and mailed it to you. The Internet connection is slow and when you finally open the file after downloading, it does not open correctly and an error message is displayed, that is:
“The specified Zip file is corrupted.”
Cause:
The root cause of this error message is that the ZIP file has corrupted. It may have happened because of poor network connectivity. When the Internet connection is poor, then some data loss may happen while downloading the file, which is known as interruptions or hiccups. Because of the data loss, the file structure of the file gets invalid. In such scenario, even when a file is correctly downloaded till 99 percent you would not be able to view or extract it.

Resolution:
There is no such workaround to repair the ZIP file. One of the best things, that you can do is to download the file again and then try to extract it. However, if that is not possible then you should use a third-party ZIP repair software to repair ZIP file. Such read-only tools have rich user interface and do not require having any high-end technical knowledge to restore the ZIP files.