Many users wonder how they can purposely damage or corrupt a file, be it a Word document, a presentation, or a folder itself. Why would they want to do it? You may not have had time to submit an assignment on time and are trying to make the teacher believe that the file is corrupted. Although there would be hundreds of excuses to really want to do it. In this guide we are going to tell you 4 methods to corrupt a file with tools that we have on our PC and with online platforms.
Although at the end we will also tell you about a program with which you can easily repair these damaged files . You may also like to know How to fix error 0x80070570 for corrupted files .
Contents
- 1Method 1. Change file extensions to corrupt a file
- 2Method 2. Corrupt a file using Notepad in Windows
- 3Method 3. Corrupt a file online with Corrupt-a-File
- 4Method 4. Using a file compression tool
- 5How to repair damaged files
Method 1. Change file extensions to corrupt a file
The first method is the simplest, although not as complete as the ones we will see later. Above all, it is a good idea to corrupt Word or Office documents quickly and efficiently. Remember to always have a copy of the file that you are going to damage in case you want to continue opening it without problems later.
- The first thing you should do is disable the “Hide the extension” optionto see the extension of the file you want to damage. To do so, type “File Options” in the search menu and open “File Explorer Options”.
- Now go to the Viewtab and uncheck the box for “Hide extensions for known file types ”. Then click Apply and OK again.
- If you have a Mac, right-click on the fileand click Get Info.
- Go to Name and extensionand uncheck the Hide extension box.
Once this is done, you will simply have to change the file extension by right clicking on it > Rename > and rename it as « Filename .docx «. In this way, the Word program will not be able to open the file because it does not recognize it.
Method 2. Corrupt a file using Notepad in Windows
Another similar method to deliberately corrupt a file, be it Word or PDF, is by using Windows Notepad. It will only take you a minute and you must follow these steps:
- Right clickon the file to damage and open with Notepad.
- Once opened, select about 10 linesof all the commands that you will see in the window and delete them.
- Save the file, close notepad and now try to open it as usual. Easy right?
Method 3. Corrupt a file online with Corrupt-a-File
If you want to damage a file and then send it to your boss or a teacher, you’ll need something more professional. Especially if they already have some knowledge of computers and office automation. For that, it is best to use an online tool like Corrupt-a-file where our file is almost irreparably corrupted.
- Access the Corrupt-a-Filewebsite and upload the file from your PC, Drive or Dropbox.
- Now you just have to wait for the program to perform the operation and download the damaged file to your PC. Easy, fast and free.
Method 4. Using a file compression tool
Finally, if what you want is to corrupt a folder full of files, you can use a program like Winrar Archiver to damage it. You can actually use whatever tools you have installed to compress a folder of files for sharing . The steps to follow are simple:
- Right clickon the folder or files you want to damage and select the Compress option .
- When the compression is almost 90%complete , pause and cancel the compression.
- This causes the compression tool to have created a new file but it is corrupted.
How to repair damaged files
Before finishing, you should keep in mind that if at any time you receive a damaged file of this type, it is possible to recover it. For this, it is best to use some tools like EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard that you can download for free in trial version for Windows and Mac .
The best thing about this program is that it can repair damaged Excel, Word, PPT, PDF documents, and even broken videos and images. And if you need it, we will tell you what to do to recover files that have been deleted from a USB .
