Working with Par2 Tool

Par2 is a tool for creating and/or using PAR2 files to detect damage in data files and repair them if necessary. This can be used for any type of archive, especially split archives. There are three options a user can choose on what to do with par2

• Create par2 files for the archive/split archive: Use this option to create a par2 recovery file. A user can create a par 2 file for the large single archive and then split the archive via split option and still can use the .par2 files as a recovery file for the split archive. There are 2 parameters a user can use for creating par2 files, % redundancy and block size. By default, % redundancy is at 5% while block size is left to the tools computation how much block size is necessary. A user may wish to input custom numbers to the 2 parameters by choosing the custom option in the dialog's drop down
• Verify par2 files: Use this option to check if the damaged archive/split archive can be repaired. ExpressZip will prompt the user if the damaged archive/split archive is repairable or not. If repair is not possible, it will prompt how many more recovery blocks out of total is needed.
• Repair the damaged archive/split archive with the par2 files: Use this option to repair the damaged archive/split archive. For split archives, the missing part of the multipart will be recreated.

Note: Since creation, verification and repair includes complex operations like computation of checksums, the process will take somewhat long time to finish.

Note: The .par2 files should be on the same directory and the same base name as the damaged archive when dealing with verify and repair options. For example:

• Archive Name: C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\MyFiles\Par2Split.zip
• Par2 Name Should be: C:\Users\Admin\Desktop\MyFiles\Par2Split.zip.par2