Winrar: Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

• Q:    I still cannot understand how to use WinRAR to extract files.
  
  A:    Please read Shell and command line mode topic. It contains pointers to descriptions of several different ways to extract files.
  
  
  
• Q:    When I download a RAR archive using Netscape Navigator or Communicator, the file is corrupt, what's wrong?
  A:    Apache HTTP server erroneously reports the RAR archive type as text/plain and as a result, Netscape Navigator/Communicator treats the file as plain text. To prevent this happening, those webmasters, who use Apache, should create .htaccess file in each directory which has RAR archives and add the following string to it:
  
  • AddType application/x-rar-compressed rar
          If .htaccess already exists, this string should be added to the already existing file.
    
• Q:    RAR incorporates a number of different compression "methods", what are the advantages and disadvantages of using them and which one would you recommend for daily use?
  
  A:    I tried to answer to this question in the topic How to choose optimal archiving settings.
  
  
  
• Q:    I've heard a lot about "Solid" archives. What are they and how can I use them?
  
  A:    Please see the topic Solid archives.
  
  
  
• Q:    How could a user of my BBS (E-mail system, FTP server etc.) extract files from RAR archives while RAR is shareware and one must register after a 40 day evaluation period?
  
  A:    The RAR distribution archive contains a free UnRAR utility, UnRAR.EXE, which can be used, without paying a license fee, by anyone wanting to extract archives created by RAR. As an additional BONUS to this, the source code of a portable UnRAR is available on http://www.rarlab.com. Note that the RAR algorithm is proprietary and you must not use UnRAR sources to reverse engineer it.
  
  
  
• Q:    Where can I get the latest releases of WinRAR?
  
  A:    Visit WinRAR home page http://www.rarlab.com.
  
  
  
• Q:    I received "CRC error" message when extracting. What does it mean?
  
  A:    The extracted file is corrupt either because of archive damage or problems with hardware. If an archive is damaged, but has a recovery record, you may try to repair it, otherwise it is impossible to restore damaged data. Note that in the case of solid archive all files after a damaged file will be lost.
  
  
  
• Q:    I failed to extract files from a solid multivolume RAR archive because one archive volume was damaged (bad floppy diskette). Help me!
  
  A:    First of all, you should use RAR recovery record when storing archives onto unreliable media such as floppies. Generally, it is not recommended to create solid archives in this case, use the normal (non solid) mode instead.
         If you have a damaged volume of solid archive, try to repair the damaged volume. It helps if RAR recovery was used when creating archive. You may check for the presence of a recovery record in the archive using Show information command. Rename recovered volume, fixed.arcname.rar (if recovery were not used, WinRAR builds only rebuilt.arcname.rar) to the actual volume name and try to unpack your archive again, starting from the first volume.
  
  
  
• Q:    I forgot my password, please help me!
  
  A:    WinRAR encryption does not have any backdoor. Even if we forget a password to any our archive, we will not be able to restore it. So please do not ask us to help in this situation.
  
  
  
• Q:    Why WinRAR does not delete its temporary files in the Windows temporary folder?
  
  A:    It happens when you use drag and drop to extract files or open archived files with an external viewer. In such case files may still be in use when closing WinRAR and moreover, there is no reliable way to detect if the external program still needs these unpacked files. So WinRAR does not delete them immediately, instead, when you run WinRAR the next time, all temporary files older than one hour will be deleted.
  
        If you do not want to involve the temporary folder when extracting files at all, use either "Extract To" command in WinRAR shell or "Extract To" item in the archive context menu instead of drag and drop.
  
  
  
• Q:    Why WinRAR does not use 4096 K dictionary for my archive?
  
  A:    Even if you specified 4096 K dictionary size in the compression settings, WinRAR may automatically decrease this value when creating a new archive if the total archived data size is at least twice less than dictionary size. It does not hurt compression and allows to reduce memory requirements.