Fixing WinRar “Unexpected End of Archive” Error

Home
Zeroes and Ones

You have completed the downloaded file of .ZIP or .RAR, and now you want to open that archive file type by extracting using WinRar. But, it happens again. A frustrating error message comes across, stating, WinRar unexpected end of archive. What does that error message mean? Well, this means that the .zip or .rar file you […]

You have completed the downloaded file of .ZIP or .RAR, and now you want to open that archive file type by extracting using WinRar.

But, it happens again. A frustrating error message comes across, stating, WinRar unexpected end of archive.

What does that error message mean?

Well, this means that the .zip or .rar file you were trying to download was incomplete or corrupted.

Causes of Errors

Not fully downloaded. The error message of “WinRar unexpected end of archive” encountered when you were trying to extract the .zip or .rar file was probably because the download process was not fully complete.

Such error happened for variety of reasons as listed below:

  • The .zip or .rar file is big file size (>1 GB)
  • The internet connection is not stable, like RTO (Request Time Out).
  • The download process is done through browser. When the network is not connected, the download process stops and displays a complete download, as in fact it is corrupted.
READ
Online Pages for Unzipping Files

Solution:

You should check the file size. Compare the file size of the downloaded file with the file size information in the link site.

When file is corrupted…

Redownload. If you found that the downloaded file is smaller than in the link site, it means that your file is corrupted, so you need to redownload it.

Notes: You should not download file directly from the browser, but do that using a software download manager like free download manager.

By using the software download manager, when the network is not connected, the download process will stop, but you can still resume it when the network reconnected.

When file is not corrupted…

Repair. One solution you can run when you found the downloaded file size is as it is in the link site information is by repairing that file.

Winrar itself has inbuilt feature which works to repair the corrupted file archives.

  1. Open file with WinRar. Right click on file and choose open with WinRar or open file.
  2. Repair File. File -> Tools -> Repair
  3. Select the RAR or ZIP. Choose “Treat the corrupt archive as” based on your file archive.
  4. Repairing process. In case a message pop up when repairing process as “recovery record found” it is likely that the recovery process will succeed.
  5. Repairing done. After completion of the repair process, then click on Close button.
  6. Do the extract. You can do that through Commands -> Extract without confirmation.
READ
Windows Hosts File Editors

Summary:

In order to prevent error message “winrar unexpected end of archive” when extracting archive files, make sure your internet connection is stable and use a software download manager to download.

The first thing you can do to repair the files is by using the inbuilt function, an innate feature of the WinRar itself.