When you want to create a non shareable archive, CZIP X ties the encryption to some hardware data given by your hardware/software setup. Using this information, the archive becomes decryptable only in your device and, if you are using a multi-user system, only by you.
As example: you can create an encrypted, non shareable archive on your Windows PC and that archive will not decrypt in you Android smartphone or vice versa.
However, it may happen that the original device’s hardware/software setup will change at a later time: when this happens, all the non shareable archive made before can’t be decrypted anymore, also if you use the correct passphrase that should decrypt them. All those data may become permanently unrecoverable, then.
In order to avoid such huge disaster, CZIP X allows to export the hardware data used when the user decides to generate a non shareable archive: after encryption, the success confirmation dialog will appear and it will show an additional option labeled “Export hardware data“. If you click this button, CZIP X will collect the hardware data used to tie the archive to your device and will store those data encrypted in a file named “HwInfo.czkey“. This file will be stored in your local filesystem and a message will tell you its path.
For your safety, it is strongly advised to move that file to a secure location, maybe outside your device.
The file “HwInfo.czkey” will be required by CZIP X when you try to decrypt a non shareable archive on a different device: the decryption will fail and CZIP X will ask if you want to try to load “HwInfo.czkey” before trying again to decrypt the archive.