Winzip trouble

[Starman]

I'm trying to open a .zip file I was sent, but I keep getting an error message. I quote:

The Winzip Wizard cannot open the file; it does not appear to be a valid archive. If you downloaded this file, try downloading it again. If you want to add the file to an archive, first create or open the archive, then drop the file again.

I have downloaded the file a couple of times. I also had it resent to me. Neither worked. Any help would be appreciated.

Starman

 

[maransreth]

Are you using Winzip yourself or the zip function that comes with Windows XP?
I have found that occassionally the WinXP zip function doesnt work with zip files.

The other possibility is that the original zip file is corrupt, that is that it didnt complete the zipping process. See if other people have been able to download it and open it, or ask the original person to create the zip file again.

 

[Starman]

I am using Winzip itself and the person who sent it said they were able to open it.

 

[Psionicist]

This is a typical example of bad and confusing software design. The error message really means "the file is unparsable", meaning the program doesn't really understand how the file works, possible because it's corrupt. Because the words "corrupt" and "unparsable" look scary to the average computer user so the designers decided to translate the error message to simple english with a possible solution to the problem, leading to this confusion. When WinZip was first created many years ago it was common with unstable internet connections, if you downloaded a file it could often corrupt itself during the transmission. Nowadays this rarely happens, so the "download the file again" part should have been removed by the creators a long time ago.

So, in short: WinZip doesn't understand the file. Either the file is corrupt for reasons unknown or you are using a very very old version of the program and your friend uses a very new version and the two are incompatible in some way (if your friend is tech savvy this might be the case, perhaps he's using a program other than winzip to create the zip file). I don't think this is the case though, most likely the file is corrupt. :/

 

[Starman]

Thanks. I am using the newest version of Winzip. And, yeah, if it had said the file was corrupt I would have understood better. Ah, well.

 

[dvvega]

Try an older version of Winzip OR another program that supports ZIP.

I've found that various programs alter the algorithm just slightly depending on certain settings and thus can really mess with the files.

D