BleepingComputer.com: winrar problems

Hi everyone,

Here's my problem: I downloaded 31 rar files that contained a multipart rar file inside split into several parts. When I try to open the part1.rar file, it says that for files 11-31, the archive header is corrupt and unexpected end of archive. I tried to extract anyway, but it only pulls out part 1 of the multipart file completely and part of part 2. It let me extract all of part 1 and part of 2 by selecting keep broken files, but it doesn't even see the other parts. When I try to open any part past 10, it says there are no files to extract. Here's a few things I tried to fix this:

I repaired all 31 parts with the winrar repair function. It gave me a warning saying the file header was bad and asked me if I wanted to mark it as solid, which I did. It "repaired" them but for some reason doubled the size of every part in doing so. Once they were repaired, it would let me see the contents of all the parts and I counted 7 parts to the multipart file.

I then tried again to extract and it gave me an error saying I needed part 11.r00. I searched around and discovered that is associated with the old winrar so I clicked on show info and it says they were compressed with winrar 2.0 so I dl that and renamed all the file extensions to match winrar 2.0 settings e.g. "part 2.rar" was renamed to "part1.r00", "part 3.rar" was renamed to "part1.r01" and so on. I then tried to extract from the rebuilt files. I was then prompted and told that it was missing part 32! There is no part 32. 31 files are the complete list. I can't reach the poster to ask about this, but I've had this problem with nearly all their posts so I know it can't be that.

I downloaded some utility called zipeg but it is confused and says it only found part 1, and that I need to put all the files in the same folder... they are in the same folder.

Also, this is supposed to be password protected, but at no time have I been prompted for a password.

Any suggestions on how to work around this?

Okay, first I'm confused - not by your explanation, but by trying to understand why someone would archive a split archive file into a second split archive file. The usual method (if you're going to double-archive), is to take a single large archive, and then convert that file into a split archive.

If you - and the person who originally created this weird archive - are both familiar with QuickPar, I would ask them to create and provide you with some .par files so that you can repair the original downloads. Beyond that, I'm really at kind of a loss - did the person use two versions of WinRar to create this archive?

This post has been edited by MelissaPleases: 27 December 2010 - 06:47 AM

I emailed him a couple days ago but have received no reply. Can I make the par files myself?

No, unfortunately.

.par files are created by the person who creates the original file. All that you'd be making now would be .par files for an already damaged file(s). For an explanation about .par files, you can check THIS link.

It's moot, anyway, if you can't get in contact with the person who has the original files, or someone else who has them in an uncorrupted state.

This post has been edited by MelissaPleases: 27 December 2010 - 04:43 PM

well blah. thanks for trying. i'm surprised nobody else here has come across this problem though.

Honestly, I'm not - although, it may take a few days for someone who might have run into this to find the thread and respond. Keep checking, as sometimes here it takes a few days for someone to see something and come up with a solution for you.

I'm more used to dealing with people who know that they should create .par files when they create the archive or upload, just in case something happens and part of the file(s) wind up being corrupted. They're amazing - as that link stated, you can lose one complete part of a multi-part download, and .par files can rebuild that missing part for you.

*sigh*

still waiting...

Be patient, RG. It's the holidays, so it may take longer than usual. The folks here are good, and someone will give you hand as soon as they can.

sometimes when we download .rar files, in the second attemt when the first download attempt fails, the filename will be sightly changed. it will look different from other parts. look at it. if it is so, plz make the file name identical for all parts then unzip.

a file in different parts sometimes give us problems. i downloaded a movie in 16 parts out of which i could not download part09( megaupload says the file is not available). i spend lot of time in downloading all the 15 parts from megaupload. now since i miss a part, i am unable to unzip it. in this type of cases there is nothing we can do since the original poster does not respond. we can search for another download link and try to download the movie afresh.

This post has been edited by evergreen1: 10 January 2011 - 07:09 PM

hey! thanks for replying. yea, i think you are right. i have tried virtually everything and it will not unpack.

use a download manager next time which uses crc (cyclic redundancy check). It's a method of checking for errors in data that has been transmitted on a communications link. Winrar uses crc and if you use a download manager that has it built in, then it will always check and you can even pause and resume downloads. Use the best to fit your needs, there are a lot out there, I use Jdownloader.