Know How to Extract Damaged RAR Files

About 4 months ago I added a few of my important files to the .rar folder. But now, when I am checking the files as I need them, I am unable to open them. The RAR file is showing a message saying WinRAR error the file header is corrupt. So now, what can be done to extract my RAR files?

At times, it often happens that your RAR files refuse to open and an error message pops up saying “CRC32 failed”, “Checksum error”,“WinRAR file damaged or unknown format error”, “can’t open RAR as archive”, “the archive is corrupted error”, “Unexpected end of archive”, incomplete download of RAR file is also the reason. Mostly, you will face this situation of RAR file not extracting when your files are corrupted or broken. RAR file archives are commonly used as compressed files on the Internet for file-sharing purposes. And it is quite a common issue for the RAR file to get corrupt while you are downloading it from the internet due to interruptions or virus infection.

If you want to access the content of this RAR file, you will have to unzip the .rar file i.e. extract the file. However, in case your RAR file is corrupt, you won’t be successful in extracting the files unless you repair them. This is the only way towards the recovery of the corrupted RAR files.

How to Extract Corrupted RAR Files?

In this article we have explained two methods which are tested and proved to repair the RAR/ZIP file successfully. If the issue is incomplete download of RAR file, then we highly recommend you first try to download the file again as it may resolve the issue. But if redownloading is not fixing the issue, you have to then repair the corrupted RAR archive file.

Method 1: Repair Damaged RAR or Corrupted RAR file using WinRAR

Fortunately, WinRAR allows you to repair as well as extract the corrupt RAR files. In this section, you will get to know how to recover corrupted RAR files using WinRAR in two different ways i.e., Repair Archive option and Extract To option.

1) Fix the RAR file using the WINRAR Repair Option:

WINRAR Repair Option is an Inbuilt file repair function in WinRAR Software. It is designed to repair minor corruptions in your RAR files.

Follow the steps to know how to use WINRAR Repair Option.

• Download, and Install WinRAR on your PC.
• Right-click on the corrupted RAR file and click on Open With WinRAR.
• Then the WinRAR Window will open up, click on Tools > select Repair Archive.
• Click on Browse and select the destined location for the repaired RAR file i.e., where you want to save the repaired RAR file. Hit OK.
• After the completion of the repairing process, click on Close.
• You can now go to the destined location of the repaired RAR file or can check in the same directory where the damaged or corrupted RAR file was existing. It will be saved in both places.

Hopefully, this method will fix the minor errors. However, if WinRAR is still saying that the file is corrupted, you have to give it a try to extract RAR files using the Extract to option.

2) Extract the RAR file using WINRAR Extract to Option:

At times, even after using WinRAR repair option. Your WinRAR File might be still corrupt. Thankfully WinRAR has an option which lets you extract broken or corrupt .rar files.

Follow the steps mentioned below to extract damaged .rar files

• Open the WinRAR Program.
• Then from the File Menu just select Open Archive and locate the corrupt RAR file and click Open.
• Click to Extract To button and then check the box named Keep Broken Files and then select the Save Settings option.
• Through the Extraction path and options window, you can then specify a destination path to save the extracted files by clicking on save settings.
• Then hit on OK button to extract the corrupt RAR file.

Once this procedure is carried out, you will be able to see the files that are extracted. However, this process works well for partially downloaded files and for those with some minor issues. At times, even when the RAR file is fixed, all files can’t be extracted. Moreover, if this process fails, there are chances of the RAR file getting furthermore corrupted. Hence, the attempts to repair the RAR file do not yield great results with this manual way.

So now, how to fix this corrupted .rar file? Don’t worry; you can make use of the Remo Repair RAR tool that has been specifically designed to fix such corrupt RAR files.

Method 2: Repair and Recover Corrupted RAR Files using Remo Repair RAR

Remo Repair RAR is one of the finest and best utilities, equipped with cutting-edge algorithms that can easily repair your corrupt RAR file on all the versions of Windows OS including the newest Windows 11, and other older versions such as Windows 10, Windows 8, and 8.1, Windows 7, etc. In the process of corrupt RAR file repair, the tool creates a new functioning RAR file to ensure the safety of the source file i.e. the original RAR file. It just extracts the contents from the copied corrupt file, saves it in the new file, and repairs the file.

5 Simple steps to Repair and Recover Any Corrupted RAR File

Step 1: Download and install Remo Repair RAR software on your Windows PC.

Step 2: Use the “Browse” button to locate and select your RAR file.

Step 3: Click on the “Repair” button to begin repair process.

Step 4: With this, the software will start scanning the RAR file and once the repair process is over press "Next" and then a window will appear asking for the destination location to save lost data, just click on the "Select Folder" button to choose the destination path as shown in the screenshot.

Step 5: Select the location and click the "Save" button to save all your repaired RAR files with their complete content.

Some of the Exciting features of Remo Repair RAR

• Easy and safe repair of corrupted RAR files
• Efficiently fixes even the RAR files exceeding 4GB of size
• Incorporated with highly intuitive and an easy-to-use GUI that ensures hassle free repair process
• Capable of repairing even the severely corrupt RAR files
• Offers free trial version to preview he repaired file before purchasing the tool
• Provides 24 / 7 free online technical support to ease the repair process
• Supports repair of RAR files on all available versions of Windows OS

Additional Info: Are you worried about how to fix a damaged Word file? Don't worry, just click on the given link to learn the file repair process.

Conclusion:

In order to access or view RAR files you first have to unzip the folder and extract the files. However, at times those files get corrupt which makes them inaccessible and difficult to extract, in this writeup we have talked about how can you easily extract even the most severely corrupt RAR files.
Hope this article has solved your problem.

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