The archive is checked for corruption, format-validated, inventoried member by member, and returned with a digital-preservation readiness report — a real answer, not a guess.
The failure mode that only shows up when it's too late
A zip or tar file can sit on a drive looking completely normal — right file size, opens fine in a file browser — and still be silently corrupted inside. The only way to actually know is to open and verify it, which almost nobody does until the day they need the backup and it fails.
What the check actually covers
The archive is checked for corruption, its format is validated, every member file is inventoried, and the result comes back as a digital-preservation readiness report — not a pass/fail guess, an actual accounting of what's inside and its condition.
Where this breaks down — said plainly
- It tells you the archive is intact and readable; it can't tell you the data inside is the right data. That's still worth a spot-check against what you expect to be in there.
- 2 GB per individual file inside the archive is the hard limit, same as everywhere else on the site.
Related guides
Where this fits on the site: this is the Check archives for corruption service under Archive & file services pricing — published tiers starting at $199 for up to 5 GB / 1,000 files, no quote, no sales call. See Services & Pricing or go straight to Choose your job.