Damaged Archive

[Vazebest]

Hi guys!

I encrypted some files with password and after a little whilte tried to add 5 more files to the existing *.pae archive. Everything went fine and at the end I was asked if I want to save the changes to the old archive (with the new added files). Confirmed……and then NOT RESPONDING…and then when I tried to open the archive it thinks a little while, says decrypting and then stops and a message comes WRONG PASSWORD. And the password is correct. Is there a way to fix the archive now and save at least some of the files? I now that if it was .zip it would be possible to repair, but what about *.pae ?!? Please help! Thanks in advance to everyone!

[RJWaring]

I’ve heard this kinda problem a few times ref encrypted archive’s & .pae’s being corrupted due to a crash during loading/exporting.

And unfortunetly, I am not aware of anyone or any means to recover them nor from my knowlege does PowerArchiver have a tool that can repair their own format.

I’m no conexware devleloper and with the latest version of PA being released soon its possible there have been some developments within that area.

I wouldnt hold my hopes up. Sorry I couldnt give you any good advice.

This is why I backup my files using online sources, thus if something goes wrong I can atleast revert to a historic version.

[Vazebest]

Well, that’s really bad news. I don’t see a reason to use the power archiver since there are such unsolvable problems…

Could you then please advise me where to store my files online safely. Thanks!

[RJWaring]

@Vazebest:

Well, that’s really bad news. I don’t see a reason to use the power archiver since there are such unsolvable problems…

Could you then please advise me where to store my files online safely. Thanks!

Reference towards the unsolved problems. I cant say there isnt a fix because there might be but my experience with things like Encrypted content is like with all other apps Desklock, Steganos, PGP of such i have used all of them and if during encryption / decryption there is a crash then the file can corrupt and due to the algorithems used being par-crpyted its very likely you cant recover it easily.

Hense why I would create an encrypted file and back it up so if a version of an encrypted archive becomes corrupt you can revert to a previos version.

I wouldnt hold frustration towards PowerArchiver as the same thing can happen with any Encrypted Archive.

Reference towards Online Backup sources for me I use LiveDrive they seem to offer the cheapest price unlimited backup storage space for home users with FTP and shared permisions access via a custom web portal.

ie you can setup a folder so friends & family can access authorised pictures, files, etc etc

Obviosly, there are other providers but i’ve used most of them and personaly I trust livedrive.

[spwolf]

@Sir:

I’ve heard this kinda problem a few times ref encrypted archive’s & .pae’s being corrupted due to a crash during loading/exporting.

huh?

[spwolf]

@Vazebest:

Hi guys!

I encrypted some files with password and after a little whilte tried to add 5 more files to the existing *.pae archive. Everything went fine and at the end I was asked if I want to save the changes to the old archive (with the new added files). Confirmed……and then NOT RESPONDING…and then when I tried to open the archive it thinks a little while, says decrypting and then stops and a message comes WRONG PASSWORD. And the password is correct. Is there a way to fix the archive now and save at least some of the files? I now that if it was .zip it would be possible to repair, but what about *.pae ?!? Please help! Thanks in advance to everyone!

it is not possible to repair corrupted encrypted files because they are encrypted and by nature that makes it impossible.

This is first time i hear of someone’s archive being corrupted during update.

What format did you use, zip pae?

[davidsplash]

what would be better would be to add some sort of protection to encrypted archives like pae so when it updates if there is a computer error it can be recovered

[spwolf]

@davidsplash:

what would be better would be to add some sort of protection to encrypted archives like pae so when it updates if there is a computer error it can be recovered

it cant be done, if it is encrypted, it means it is garbled, and when then it corrupts, there is no way to recover the corruption.

instead, i suggest that people shouldn’t encrypt things that are not important. Over the years we have seen people ask us about recovery of things like family pictures and final papers for university…

[davidsplash]

What would be a good feature would be to enbcrypt the file but to not overright the last known good backup instead create a new file and then test the file and if it wortks ok then come up with a dialoge saying do u want to delete last backup of files

[RJWaring]

@spwolf:

it cant be done, if it is encrypted, it means it is garbled, and when then it corrupts, there is no way to recover the corruption.

instead, i suggest that people shouldn’t encrypt things that are not important. Over the years we have seen people ask us about recovery of things like family pictures and final papers for university…

I Cant really argue with spwolf on this.

The whole point of encryption is to make it very hard for human’s & computers to make sense of what is within that secured format.

Back when I worked for a government agency as a contracter they encrypted everything on the fly but on the occation the active session got currupt due to any number of regular reasons they rolled the session back by versions to a point of a default unlocked template. Also, there was a testing algorithm before boot to check that the encryption keys were stable.

For me personally, I pay a very small amount a month for unlimited backup’s & upto 30 versions of every file… Meaning I can roll back 30 versions of that particular file before im out of options.

So… what am i trying to say…

Encrypting is a method of scrambling source code so only a valid key can unlock it…

Backing up is a method of backing up a File or Folder and its contents.

The key is to use both methods to secure your data.

Its hard for Powerarchiver to tick both boxes as to encrypt and backup unlocked contents to the same drive isnt safe so PA give the user the option todo both and then move a backup to a wide array of options such as FTP, DVD or system location drive ie NAS drive or USB storage.

So if you are to encrypt a file then test it before deleting the source then if it works without issue back it up onto another drive, FTP, DVD etc etc…

That way you can continue to encrypt on your active session and if something goes wrong you have a backup else where.

[davidsplash]

i agree you cant argue with the pfacts but you can help them by not overrighting last known good archive untill pa has actually checked the new archive is ok.

Basically i would like pa to do a tempory archive and then when it has made sure that archive is ok then overright the old archive.

[Mili]

did you use the same or different password for the newly added files?

[Alexandra376]

can i restor e corupt archive after extraction?

[Alexandra376]

i allredy fix the problem, thanks

[Mili]

Hi Alexandra,

can you let us know some details?
thanks!

[aaron-wilson]

Many viruses also corrupt the files and even archives. If that is the case then upload the file to virustotal.com which scans the file with all antiviruses avaialble and presents a report.