4 Effective Ways: How to Recover Compressed Files in Windows 11/10/8/7

Compressed files play an important role in reducing the required amount of hard drive space. With compressed files, users can not only save individual files, but also place different file formats and access them easily.

Two of the most well-known compressed file formats are Zip files and RAR files. Compressing huge folders into workable ZIP/RAR files not only saves hard drive space but also saves time.

However, in some unforeseen reasons, such as accident deletion, you may lose compressed files. Don’t worry, learn the effective ways on how to recover compressed files in this article.

Why you need to perform compressed file recovery?

ZIP files often contain valuable data. Also, since the files are compressed, the data contained in them can be quite large. Sometimes, you may lose important compressed files due to accidental deletion, CRC error, interruption while downloading zip file, improper conversion of compressed files, virus intrusion, etc.

Besides, some compressed files may be invalid or corrupt, and you cannot access them. Therefore, to retrieve vital compressed files, you need to perform compressed file recovery as soon as possible.

Note: No matter how you lost compressed files, stop using the drive that contains the deleted or lost data. Because continued use of the device may overwrite or damage the information you wish to recover.

How to recover compressed files in 4 ways

How to recover zip files or compressed files? Whether the ZIP file is lost or inaccessible, you can try to get back the original file. There are 4 solutions for different scenarios. You can choose one to restore compressed files according to your situation.

Way 1. Recover deleted compressed files from Recycle Bin

It's always worth looking at the deleted items in the Windows Recycle Bin before going through a more extensive recovery process. The first thing you should do when a file is accidentally deleted is to check if the file is in the Recycle Bin. Sometimes, with this simple program, you may get lucky and recover archive files quickly.

Open the Recycle Bin by double-clicking its icon > search for the archive file to retrieve > right-click the item and select the "Restore" option.

Way 2. How to recover ZIP file from File History (Windows 10 only)

This method is only available on Windows 10, which comes with a backup feature called File History. If you regularly back up your computer, you can restore compressed files using the built-in File History Backup feature.

So you have to make sure you have this feature turned on, go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup > and check that the "Automatically back up my files option" is turned on. Then, follow the steps below to restore the compressed files from File History.

Step 1: Navigate to the folder containing the missing ZIP file.

Step 2. Tap the Home tab, click the history button.

Step 3. Find the file you want to restore and double-click it, then click Restore to restore the file to its original location.

Way 3. How to recover corrupted ZIP files with WinRAR

If you are using the Windows built-in compression tool, WinRAR provides the “Repair archive” feature to help you repair your corrupted WinRAR file. Many users may not take full advantage of this feature. Using this function, you can easily restore inaccessible ZIP files. It is convenient to follow these steps:

Step 1. Open WinRAR > navigate to the invalid or corrupted ZIP file.

Step 2. Click on Tools in the menu bar > click Repair archive.

Step 3. Click on Browse > select the output location > click on OK > After the repair finishes, click on Close.

Step 4. Navigate to the repaired file in WinZip > tap Extract to... in the top toolbar.

Step 5. Choose the Destination path, and make sure to put a check mark in front of Keep broken files.

Step 6. Tap OK to see if you successfully recovered the files in the ZIP archive.

Way 4. How to restore ZIP file easily with data recovery software (Best Way)

Actually, with the help of data recovery tool, your deleted or lost ZIP files can be recovered effortlessly. It doesn't require you to back up, and it can help you recover permanently deleted data  even if you accidentally emptied the Recycle Bin.

Speaking of the software programs to perform zip file recovery, we highly recommend MyRecover. With this tool, you can recover various types of ARCHIVE file like 7Z, ZIP/ZIPX, ZAP RAR, AR/ARC, BZ/BZA, CAR, etc. in Windows 11/10/8/7 SP1/Server.

It applies to a wide range of data loss scenarios, such as disk error/formatting, virus attack, system crash, inadvertent deletion, etc. Furthermore, it enables you to recover Word, Excel, PPT, Photos, Videos, Audios, emails, webpages and other files from internal or external hard drive (HDD, SDD, USB flash drive, SD/memory card).

Zip file recovery software free download

Step 1. Install and run MyRecover > Hover the mouse over the drive > Click Scan.

Step 2. It will automatically perform Quick Scan/Deep Scan to search for your ZIP files, if you find them, click the Recover x Files button to get them back.

Tips to protect Zip Files from lost

Prevention is always better than cure. Here, we've put together some helpful tips that can help prevent compressed file loss.

▶ Always back up your files to an external storage device or cloud drive to keep your files safe.

▶ If the zip file is on the Internet, it is recommended to download the file again and quickly create a backup.

▶ Extract the content using official and virus-free decompression software.

▶ In case the hard drive where you store the zip file is damaged, if the data is accessible, it is recommended to unzip the file on another device to prevent damage.

▶ If the hard drive is not functioning properly, it is recommended to run disk checking software on it before extracting the zip file. 

Final words

Loss of important archive files can put unnecessary stress on your life. Fortunately, there are several ways on how to recover compressed files and preserve their valuable contents. If the files aren't in the Recycle Bin and you don't have a backup, data recovery software offers a reliable way to recover your zip files.