Empty Window/no files when I open Archive with BetterZip

Submitted by JosieReinhardt on Wed, 2007-06-06 21:08
in

I am trying to access some files in an Archive I have been unable to expand with other programs (I have tried StuffIt and BOMArchiveHelper, and also command line unzip).

When I open the file, after the program is done thinking, the transcript simply says:

Loading archive: /Users/xxx/Desktop/xxx.zip

But, there are no files in the window (even though the archive is 2.5 gigs unexpanded)

Does this mean my archive is hopelessly corrupt? Or is it too large for BetterZip to handle?

Thanks

‹ mac zipfile on win32 Unable to Open Encrypted Zip File in Windows ›
Submitted by Robert on Wed, 2007-06-06 22:06.

BetterZip can open, extract, and create zip archives larger than 2 GB, so this should not be the problem. StuffIt (at least I think) can extract large archives too, while the other two cannot. Most likely, the archive is damaged. BetterZip does not show an error message in that case but an empty window. Yeah, that's probably not the best behavior - I'll add an error message.

What program did you use to create the archive? Maybe that program was not ready to create archives larger than 2 GB. I have seen a few archivers that didn't complain, but created an invalid archive instead.

Submitted by JosieReinhardt on Thu, 2007-06-07 16:56.

I'm pretty sure the person who made the archive used the Mac Archiving functionality where you cntl+click a folder and hit "Create archive". I think this is BOMArchiveHelper...?

Would the fact that BOM can't extract large archives mean it can't really make them properly either?

Since the archive was made, it was moved to another server for storage and back again to the comp it was made on. Not sure if that matters.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Submitted by Robert on Fri, 2007-06-08 09:56.

Hm, I just checked to create and extract a few 4GB large archives with BOMArchiveHelper and it worked fine. Although, I am pretty sure that older versions were not able to do that. I'll check that. Moving files around does not corrupt them, normally.

If you are comfortable with using the terminal, try this:

Either execute this command:
/Applications/BetterZip.app/Contents/Resources/p7zip/7z l -slt /your/archive.zip

or use this step by step guide:

1. Open Terminal
2. Ctrl+click BetterZip, select Show Package Contents.
3. Navigate down to BetterZip.app/Contents/Resources/p7zip/.
4. Drag the 7z utility inside this folder to the Terminal.
5. Add a space and l -slt
6. Add another space.
7. Drag your archive into the Terminal window.
8. Press enter.

What does 7z say about your archive?

Submitted by JosieReinhardt on Fri, 2007-06-08 19:11.

After thinking awhile, it gives:

7-Zip 4.44 beta Copyright (c) 1999-2007 Igor Pavlov 2007-01-20
p7zip Version 4.44 (locale=C,Utf16=off,HugeFiles=on,2 CPUs)

Error: /My/Archive.zip is not supported archive

Errors: 1

Submitted by Robert on Fri, 2007-06-08 20:24.

Okay, sorry, but this is the message 7-zip gives you when it doesn't recognize the archive or the archive is invalid. Since it very well knows zip archives, this means that the archive is in some way corrupted. After StuffIt and BOMArchiveHelper were not able to extract it, this is no big surprise. I hope you still have the original data somwhere.