A solution to error 0x80004005 (unspecified) when you extract zip archives


You may download zip archives from various sources, which means that corruption is not an issue (there can’t be all of them corrupted!), and still the Windows native unzip utility or even WinRar refuse to extract these archives!

Upon extraction Windows gives this alert:

An unexpected error is keeping you from copying the file. If you continue to receive this error, you can use the error code to search for help with this problem. Error 0x80004005: Unspecified error

Most probably the archive that your programs or Windows are unable to extract, has been

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compressed with an algorithm that they don’t support, such as bzip2.

Try using another archiver, like IZarc2Go, a portable version of IZarc that you don’t need to install, and see if the stubborn zip files can now be extracted.

* Check also this list with the best free compression (zip unzip) programs including repair, automation and security tools.

Enjoy!