Help with .rar

gawker8 · #1 12-07-2005, 11:08 PM

It seems that more and more, the usenet sites I visit are overwhelmed with movies broken into rar segments, par segments, etc. I have no clue how to handle these. Can someone recommend a tutorial or some kind of help? I must need to download some software but I don't know where to start.

Thanks in advance,

Gawker

cream1 · #2 12-08-2005, 03:31 AM

PC - d/l WinRar
Mac - d/l UnRarX ...think that's the name, see versiontracker website.

O believe they are free downloads. You should be set.

CP · #3 12-08-2005, 10:14 AM

first of all, cream1 is correct, with what was said, but i do not have much knowledge about mac's so i cannot help you if thats what you use.

If you are not using a Mac, then you can download winrar from here winrar is just like winzip. If you have multiple files named like part1.rar part2.rar, then you will need to download all parts. Once you have all parts, simply double click on part1 and it will open up the rar file so you can drag out the attatchment.
When using winrar, you have a trial period, but once you trial is finished, winrar will still work, but you may get a small popup message to buy, which you can just simnply close.
hope this help's
regards
CP.

gawker8 · #4 12-08-2005, 11:03 AM

Thanks Cream1 and Celeb Peeper. Some of these .rar files have a lot of parts. Is there any way to view one or two of them without downloading the whole thing? It seems you could spend a lot of time downloading a huge video and then find out it's not very good.

CP · #5 12-08-2005, 11:17 AM

no, sorry,
you need all parts to extract the file,
regards
CP

Quote:

Originally Posted by gawker8

Thanks Cream1 and Celeb Peeper. Some of these .rar files have a lot of parts. Is there any way to view one or two of them without downloading the whole thing? It seems you could spend a lot of time downloading a huge video and then find out it's not very good.

gawker8 · #6 12-08-2005, 12:14 PM

Hooray! I found a three parter and was able to open it and extract it. Thanks for the help. I'll continue to ask questions here since others may be as ignorant as I was. Is there any way to determine how many parts there are to a .rar file before one starts to download them? I took a chance with the three parter since I didn't see any more parts posted to the newsgroup. But I wouldn't want to start a 77 parter and find out there was a 78th that didn't get posted and the 77 won't open without it.

Thanks again.

Gawker

MrPun707 · #7 12-09-2005, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gawker8

But I wouldn't want to start a 77 parter and find out there was a 78th that didn't get posted and the 77 won't open without it.

That's where .par and .par2 files come into play. They help recover missing parts.
Go here for some info and downloads: http://www.par2.net/
I recommend QuickPar for .par2 files and SmartPar for .par files.

How to use once you've installed the programs:
1. Download as many .rar files as you can.
2. Download a .par or .par2 file.
3. Run the .par or .par2 file.
4. Once it's done checking, it'll let you know what's missing/incomplete and you'll have to download some more files:
For .par files, you'll need to download one .p## (.p01, .p02, etc) file for every file that's missing or incomplete. For example, if it says you're missing 2 files you'd have to download .p01 and .p02 (but it doesn't have to be in order: you could download .p02 and .p06). If your missing file is just named wrong, you'll have to rename it to the correct name before the program will detect it (you don't have to for .par2 files).
For .par2 files, you'll need to download the appropriate number of "blocks". They're named .volXX+YY.par2 where YY represents the number of blocks it will recover. For example if it says you need 5 blocks you'd download .vol00+01.par2 and .vol03+04.par2.

5. Once you've downloaded the appropriate par/par2 files, run the .par or .par2 file again and you should be able to recover the files.

If you're missing more files than there are par/par2 files, you won't be able to recover the missing files.

Hope this helps.

MrPun707 · #8 12-09-2005, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gawker8

Is there any way to view one or two of them without downloading the whole thing?

You can download a few parts and extract a partial file so long as you start downloading from the beginning.
For files ending in .r##, you'll need to start with file.rar, file.r00, file.r01, etc.
For files ending in .part##.rar, you'll need to start with file.part01.rar, file.part02.rar, etc

When you're extracting the files, make sure "Keep broken files" is checked in "Extraction path and options" window. You should download at least 2MB worth of rar files to get your player to read the file.

Whether or not you can view the partial movie file depends on what kind of file it is and what player you're using. Media Player Classic and BSPlayer seem to do an ok job of it. Mpg files can usually play without problems, however Avi files can be a hassle.

Help this hopes.

raffles123 · #9 12-30-2005, 04:22 PM

[QUOTE=celeb_peeper]first of all, cream1 is correct, with what was said, but i do not have much knowledge about mac's so i cannot help you if thats what you use.

I do have a Mac and have downloaded UnRar, but still cannot figure out how to use it. I thought it would be drag and drop just like Zipit, but apparently not. Can anyone help? Thanks.

CP · #10 12-30-2005, 04:26 PM

right click on what you want to rar, then select "add to archive"

regards
CP.

[QUOTE=raffles123]

Quote:

Originally Posted by celeb_peeper

first of all, cream1 is correct, with what was said, but i do not have much knowledge about mac's so i cannot help you if thats what you use.

I do have a Mac and have downloaded UnRar, but still cannot figure out how to use it. I thought it would be drag and drop just like Zipit, but apparently not. Can anyone help? Thanks.