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"Archive tester" is a UI relying on UnRAR.exe (included), 7-zip (can be configured) and or flac.exe (can be configured).
It helps by
Though I actually started working on new version(s) in September, other priorities showed up and I can't find time to focus on this at this time. Hence, next version is postponed. Or, just maybe, it may result in a smaller being published first.
Despite what I posted on 2022-09-04, I think that new version(s) will be released at some point. Here some of the things I think of right now:
Latest version does "everything I needed" and does it right.
I still have many ideas for improvements, changes, and I am aware of some known issues (non-blocking), but developement has reached a diminishing return point where improvements would take much more time than what they would bring.
I have no sign that other people are using this software and it is not brining any revenue (which would be an incentive, though it is not the project's main objective) ...
As a result of all this, the project is not stopped by has a very low priority in my agenda.
"Archive tester" is here to bring you bad news: some of your archive files are (probably) broken, corrupted... and if they don't include recovery data and if you don't have backups, they may be lost forever.
Well, hopefully this is not your story! "Archive tester" is a tool to help detecting corrupted archive files across multiple paths/drives showing progress indicators and writing logs. Just give it a few settings and let it run.
Since the end of the nineties, yes that was last century, I have been into various kinds of digital creations. These last years I started doing photography and even more video than I did in the past. Hence I accumulated approximately 25 to 30 terabytes of data.
Over time, I lost a very few archives... Yet some were corrupted but I managed to recover most of those. I have in mind to, someday, write a more detailed page about my archiving processes. Not to tell you what you "should" do but in case you find some inspiration there.
Someday, I tested the integrity of a hard disk using HD Tune. The test passed. Anyway, immediately after, I tested the same disk using the constructor's testing tool, but then, the test failed! All other similar disks from the same brand passed tests, so this was not a constructor conspiracy to make me buy another hard disk. (I think it was a Western Digital Green or a Samsung Spinpoint, I had a lot of both.)
First lesson, all disk testing softwares are not made the same. (But this is not the issue that is address by "Archive tester".)
Yet, on a some drives that passed all tests, I still happened to find some corrupted archives.
Second lesson, testing disk surface integrity is a thing, but you really need to test integrity at file level as well.
Since then, I put everything I archive in *.rar archives, even when there is no actual space gain because this way they are testable and, to some extent, recoverable *. Yet this testability can be automated!
I know that there are command lines that allow to test paths recursively, but for long and numerous archive tests I wanted something more handy that would give me more control, more progression information and would already do a part of the work of reading the logs for me. That's why I started "Archive tester". **
* RAR's recovery record feature saved multiple files for me already. To achieve the same with other formats that I know, you have to generate extra parity using PAR2.
** Command lines also happen to do redundant testings of multivolume archives. I didn't investigate this that much.
Link | Version | Date | Size | SHA256 hash | Requires uninstalling previous version |
TC-Archive_tester-0.2.1.0-Setup.7z TC-Archive_tester-0.2.1.0-Setup.rar TC-Archive_tester-0.2.1.0-Setup.zip |
0.2.1.0 | 2019-02-12 | 1,24 MB (1.303.554 bytes) 1,29 MB (1.358.430 bytes) 1,24 MB (1.310.551 bytes) |
AECE7CC12431C5B20894FF76432FE2189BAB636BB4BFB42EB0A9D755ABB23897 A753C5F232AF101D42A5F0B9BC3A8B350E0DDD3DB8435D4E69AA47F77AD5462D 751CDFF55AB34EF3B0EF3BD857EDF9FD3DC8638B756E04EC8793735996FF6234 |
No |
Link | Version | Date | Size | SHA256 hash | Requires uninstalling previous version |
TC-Archive_tester-0.2.0.0-Setup.7z TC-Archive_tester-0.2.0.0-Setup.rar TC-Archive_tester-0.2.0.0-Setup.zip |
0.2.0.0 | 2018-07-18 | 1,09 MB (1.146.433 bytes) 1,13 MB (1.186.162 bytes) 1,09 MB (1.148.634 bytes) |
62D96DE1685F86C35670D74C5A5FE67983D0011B5E2D994CE50606FA4B06B200 E4AD7A5BCAC93CDED2661C6192D688CB7EB7B312B89D6A89495FF71B4E80792E A99E72C393AF34563551FD3CCBA274655A59B5F1983D8DCAF5BD63DEA74DE8ED |
No |
TC-Archive_tester-0.1.4.1-Setup.rar | 0.1.4.1 | 2018-01-14 | 1,12 MB (1.185.749 bytes) | D812DFE077E268A410DE4CDEC23FB45EFF7C3C86605BA91BDDE66F82CC1B3D36 | Recommended! Hopefully for the last time as installer software changed. |
TC-Archive_tester-0.1.4.0-Setup.rar | 0.1.4.0 | 2017-09-28 | 819 KB (839.208 bytes) | 16C09B2CEF1E62B4B30DB3F205E2003F475DF50E1962EEE785F682F590D4E7D3 | No |
TC-Archive_tester-0.1.3.2-Setup.rar | 0.1.3.2 | 2017-09-21 | 815 KB (835.373 bytes) | 38E0106AADF15497D55EB6E64D62C333E9B482A2083837DEA5234C460AB82ACC | Yes |
TC-Archive_tester-0.1.3.1-Setup.rar | 0.1.3.1 | 2017-09-19 | 820 KB (839.680 bytes) | 2068B21BED99B9224D3E4C0A1ECE69CF6D6EEF82F8ED46B489E1642D091CB368 | Yes |
TC-Archive_tester-0.1.3.0-Setup.rar | 0.1.3.0 | 2017-09-19 | 815 KB (835.058 bytes) | 5647F8D82B59092AE9A1CAF2056A949C1550AEDDC089964CC2716EDA2BFE713A | No |
TC-Archive_tester-0.1.2.0-Setup.rar | 0.1.2.0 | 2017-09-10 | 375 KB (384.330 bytes) | CB5726D4C46DDA8F888D453BE0CE5E3597821C9FCAC3782F3F1E7DEB2A6BAEDE | No |
There are some more settings in the "Settings" tab. For now I'll let you explore them.
As for many things, I see A LOT of ways I can improve this application. Progression will depend on the time I find for it. Obviously, in case it meets success and generates some money through donations, I may give it more attention.