|
RAR and WinRAR Archiver FAQ
|
|
Q: What is a RAR file?
|
|
Q: What is the difference between RAR and WinRAR?
|
|
Q: What does "Unknown method in filename" mean?
|
|
Q: What do I do when it says files are missing?
|
|
Q: What do I do with bin and cue files I extracted?
|
|
Q: How do I handle RAR files over 2GB on Win9x/Me?
|
|
Q: I have forgotten my password, how can I recover it?
|
|
Q: How do I register WinRAR or RAR?
|
|
Q: How much does it cost to upgrade RAR to the new version?
|
|
Q: What does RAR stand for?
|
|
Q: What is the maximum number of files that can be added to an archive?
|
|
Q: I get an error like "Invalid or corrupt authenticity information". What does this mean?
|
|
Q: What is the maximum file and archive size limitation?
|
|
Q: How can I extract a volume to view the content?
|
|
Q: What is the difference between command line WinRAR and RAR?
|
|
Q: What does the error "CRC failed in file name. The file is corrupt" mean?
|
|
|
Q: What is a RAR file?
|
A: RAR is the native format of the WinRAR archiver.
Like other archives, RAR files are data containers. They store one or several files in the compressed form. After you download a RAR file from the Internet, you need to unpack its contents in order to use them.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What is the difference between RAR and WinRAR?
|
A: The primary difference is WinRAR is nothing more than the Windows version of RAR. We offer RAR for many operating systems, and keeping consistent with other Windows programs that preface the application name with "Win", we have done the same. There is no difference in the licensing or pricing. You are working with the RAR product, so even the license does not care what operating system you're running RAR on.
The Windows version of the RAR application (WinRAR) includes a Graphical User Interface in addition to the command line utility. Other versions are run from command line only.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What does "Unknown method in filename" mean?
|
A: Older WinRAR versions (< 2.90) don't have the improved compression methods found in WinRAR 3.0 and above.
Either a RAR 3.0 archive is being unpacked by RAR 2.8 or older or a ACE 2.0 archive is being unpacked by WinRAR 2.8 or older.
In this case please update your old WinRAR/RAR version to the actual release.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What do I do when it says files are missing during extraction?
|
|
A: This means that you don't have all the parts of the archive, and you need to go back to the source you got them from and retrieve the missing pieces. Since RAR can take very large files and break them up into smaller parts, you need all the parts to put the big file back together again.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What do I do with bin and cue files I extracted?
|
|
A: Those files can be read by a program called ISO buster that is available on the internet. You will need that program in order to turn those files into something useful.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: How do I handle RAR files over 2GB on Win9x/Me?
|
|
A: There are limitations in the file systems and operating systems that RAR cannot overcome. These limitations do not exist when you run on a system with Windows NT/Windows 2000/Windows XP/Windows Vista using the NTFS file system.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: I have forgotten my password, how can I recover it?
|
A: RAR encryption does not contain backdoors, so the only possible way to find a password is to test all possible character combinations.
Remember that if you lose your password, you will be unable to retrieve the encrypted files, not even the WinRAR author is able to extract encrypted files.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: How do I register RAR or WinRAR?
|
|
A: We have a dedicated page to answer most of the registration questions we get asked routinely, please read through that, and contact us if that doesn't answer your questions.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: How much do upgrades to WinRAR cost?
|
|
A: Nothing! Upgrades are free for licensed users. You can download and install the new version on top of your old version and you're ready to go.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What does RAR stand for?
|
|
A: The term RAR comes partly from the name of the author, Eugene Roshal and the other part comes from the fact that this program does archiving of files, or Roshals' ARchiver.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What is the maximum number of files that can be added to an archive?
|
|
A: The number of files, which can be added to an archive, depends upon the amount of available memory and the length of the file names. Roughly 128 bytes of memory are required per archived file for a RAR archive. For example, it is recommended to have 128 MB if you are going to archive millions of files. WinRAR has been tested to handle over 10 million files.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: I get an error like "Invalid or corrupt authenticity information"!
|
A: The Archive has been created using an -av switch (add information about archive and archive creator), but this information is corrupt or wrong. It may indicate that archive data are damaged or a corrupt or fake (illegal) rarreg.key was used to add the authenticity information.
Check to see if you have installed the recent version - if not, please download the actual WinRAR/RAR version. We always improve all functions with every update.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What is the maximum file and archive size limitation?
|
A: The size of a RAR archive, as well as the size of any single file within a RAR archive, is limited to 8,589,934,591 GB (9,223,372,036,854,775,807 bytes).
Note that to create archives larger than 4 GB, you need to use NTFS, as older file systems do not support such large files. The size of a ZIP archive, as well as the size of any single file within a ZIP archive, is limited to 2 GB.
In general the RAR archive format is optimal for heavy tasks involving huge number of files and gigabytes of disk space.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: How can I extract a volume to view the content?
|
A: You can unpack the archives using the "Keep broken files" option from the "Extraction path and options dialog".
But most of the files don't work if they are broken.
You can try it. Perhaps a mpg video works, if you unpack only the first parts.
For most of the files you need the file header. The file header is placed in the first part of the file. In the header you find the information, if it's a movie or a text or a sound file.
So the best way is to download the first volume and extract it with the "keep broken files" option.
If you have ie: "sample.r08", extraction only works, if the multi volume archives are non-solid. You can see information about the archive using the info function.
But not all movies will be played with the first part. Some players check the length of the file and if it is different from the header entry they report an error. The same occurs with pictures.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What is the difference between command line WinRAR and RAR?
|
A: In addition to WinRAR you will find, in the distribution, the file rar.exe.
It is also a 32-bit RAR version for Windows, but it supports only the command line, text mode interface.
It is useful to call console RAR from BAT and CMD files, to use it in the DOS prompt and so on. It supports a larger number of command line switches and commands when compared with WinRAR, but it does't support ZIP and other formats.
Though common aspects of the command line WinRAR syntax considered in the Command line interface chapter are also true for console RAR, this help file does not contain descriptions of those switches and commands, which are supported only by the console version. You should read the rar.txt file for a detailed description of all console RAR features.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
|
Q: What does the error "CRC failed in file name. The file is corrupt" mean?
|
A: File data are corrupt. Archive may be damaged after creation. In this case it is sometimes possible to repair it if it has the recovery record.
It also could have been broken while creating, due to hardware failures (usually caused by an over-clocked CPU or unreliable memory).
In the latter case the recovery record will not help. The only way to detect if the repair will help is to try to apply the repair command to the archive and test the results.
Check, if you have installed the recent version - if not, please download the actual WinRAR/RAR version. We always improve all functions with every update.
|
|
|
Back to top
|
|
