Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your PAR2 file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert PAR2 to another file type
To convert PAR2 Recovery files to another format, you need QuickPar or other Backup software.
Convert a file to PAR2
To convert other file formats to the "Parity Archive Recovery File" file type, you need software like QuickPar or a similar tool.
About PAR2 files
A .par2 file is a parity archive volume based on the Parchive version 2 specification. Its primary purpose is to provide mathematical error correction (Reed-Solomon) to repair corrupted or missing files in multi-part downloads, most commonly found on Usenet. Users typically open these files using QuickPar or MultiPar. The major disadvantage of the .par2 format is that it confuses many users; it does not contain the actual media or documents being downloaded, but only the parity data needed to fix them. Because of this, traditional conversion is impossible. You cannot simply convert a .par2 file into an MP4 or PDF. Instead, the goal is to use the .par2 file to repair the broken archive (usually RAR or ZIP files). This file format is difficult to process because it is a highly specific mathematical dataset, not a media container or document structure. Often, only the original parity software can properly read the recovery blocks and apply them to the target files. However, just drag and drop your file onto convert.guru to identify the format, view its metadata, and analyze its internal headers. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or extraction may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your PAR2 file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert PAR2 file to ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, LZMA, CAB, ACE, ARJ or LHA, you can use QuickPar or similar software from the "Data Error Correction Recovery" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert XXE, 7Z, Z, PAK, LHA, DEB, UUE, TAR, LZH, ZIP, PKG or RAR files to PAR2, try QuickPar or another comparable tool in the "Data Error Correction Recovery" category.
The PAR2 Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our PAR2 converter.