5 Methods to Recover/Repair Corrupted RAR Files 2025

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Connie Yu
Updated on December 20, 2024 Preview 72.1K Preview 1
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Restore RAR, ZIP and More Archives Easily

You are much likely to have a file in the format that comes with .rar extension. What is a RAR archive? Standing for Roshal Archive, RAR is a proprietary archive file format that supports data compression, error correction and file spanning. RAR algorithm features in reducing file size without affecting its original quality. For this reason, RAR files creation enables computer users to free up disk storage space and transfer data faster.

Files missing or corruption is always an annoying issue. What makes this issue more unacceptable is, a damaged or deleted RAR archive enclosing a bunch of important files. Relax, this post will provide a quick guide on repairing corrupted RAR files and recovering deleted RAR files.

 

Recommended Tool to Recover RAR File

Essentially, RAR files have little difference from any other data in normal formats. That’s why data recovery tools can come to the rescue in event of RAR archives corruption, lost or deletion.

Among a considerable number of RAR file retrieval programs in the market, Cisdem Data Recovery for Windows or Mac is highly recommended. This software is capable of restoring trash-emptied, permanently-deleted, formatted files or any other files lost because of various situations, also repair damaged videos, photos and documents in the RAR archive. It has the reputation for high recovery rate, professional research teams and responsible customer service.

Highlights of Cisdem Data Recovery:

  • Recover 200+ types of files (image, video, audio, document, archives, etc.), including RAR
  • Repair damaged videos, photos, documents in the RAR format
  • Repair corrupted videos in mp4, mov, avi, mkv, m4v and so on
  • Support automatic repair of corrupted images and documents
  • Preview files before recovery to pick the wanted ones only
  • Quick scan and deep scan both applied to find most files
  • Scan status loaded for resuming scanning at anytime

How to retrieve RAR archives on Mac or Windows?

  1. Download and install Cisdem Data Recovery.
    Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 Free Download macOS 10.9 or later
  2. Select and scan the drive. 
    Go to Hardware Disk. All storage partitions detected by the program will be listed on its right panel. Select the exact drive where your RAR archive files lost, and click "Search for lost files" to initiate the scanning process.cisdem data recovery 01
  3. Preview and specify RAR files. 
    After scan completion, scan results will be displayed on the left panel based on different categories. Go to Type > Archives, to locate RAR files quickly, you can enter keyword in the search box.cisdem data recovery 02
  4. Recover RAR files to a safe location. 
    Select the RAR files and click "Recover" to undelete them into local drive or cloud storage platform.cisdem data recovery 03

 

Tips:

To recover corrupted video in a RAR, you can extract and upload the damaged videos to Video Repair tool, Cisdem will fix the damaged videos in batch.

repair video cisdem

To repair Word, Excel, Text or photos in a RAR, you can extract the files first, then start the scanning in Cisdem, it will auto repair these files during the Preview (double click the file to preview) process.

repair files in rar

 

How to Repair Damaged RAR File (Online Free Incl.)?

Why do RAR files get corrupted? There are many reasons causing RAR corruption, following are the common ones:

  • The RAR opener cannot recognize the header file accurately
  • Transfer error when downloading the RAR file
  • Incomplete download of a RAR file
  • Bad sector or physical damages of the hard disk where you save the RAR file
  • Virus 
  • The RAR file is too large

Basing on these reasons, you are recommended to open the RAR file with another RAR viewer to make sure the file itself is corrupted or not. If damaged, in face of this challenge, 4 potential avenues are offered for fixing corrupted RAR archive files freely.  

 

#1 Fix damaged RAR file online free

To repair a RAR file with minor corruption, you may find some online RAR files repair websites. SecureData Online File Repair is such a tool for your reference. Here’s the tutorial about using it to repair your RAR archive online for free.

  1. Visit https://online-file-repair.securedata.com/ with your browser.
  2. Drag the damaged RAR file into the repair box or click to browse your computer for uploading the archive.
  3. Click Start Repair button.secure data online file repair 01
  4. A progress bar will appear to report the repairing completion degree of your RAR file.secure data online file repair 02
  5. After repairing finished, click Preview Results to download and access the repaired RAR on your computer. Now you can get a new normal RAR file.secure data online file repair 03

What is noteworthy is that this RAR file repair path is not secure even though it’s simple. So it would be better to continue reading for more potential repair solutions.

 

#2 Repair damaged RAR files by WinRAR

WinRAR is a reputable archiver and archive manager all over the world. The software is versatile enough not only to compress, package, encrypt, backup files on your computer, but also read the contents of a RAR file without extraction. Its built-in file repair function is possible a useful way to get your corrupt RAR files back to their normal state.

How to repair corrupted RAR file with WinRAR?

  1. Download and install WinRAR on your PC.
  2. Locate the corrupt RAR file. Right-click on it and choose "Open with WinRAR".
  3. Click "Tools" at the toolbar and select "Repair archive" from the drop-down menu.winrar repair 01
  4. In the pop-up window, click "Browse" to select a destination location for saving the repaired RAR file. Keep the archive type as RAR and click OK to start repairing.winrar repair 02
  5. Within a few seconds, the corrupt RAR file will be recreated completely. Click the "Close" button.
  6. winrar repair 03Go to the destination location you selected earlier. The name of your repaired RAR file will be "rebuilt.file name.rar".winrar repair 04

Tips: If by any chance the damaged RAR file cannot be repaired, it indicates that “Recovery Records” option has not been added during file compression with WinRAR. In this instance, Cisdem Data Recovery can be tried to recover the irreparable RAR file without recovery record. 

 

#3 Force extract corrupted RAR files

To deal with RAR file corruption and damage, force extracting the archive files while overlooking the error messages could be another approach. WinRAR app will still be used here.

How to extract corrupted RAR files?

  1. Right click on the corrupted RAR archive > select "Open with" > WinRAR archiver.force extract rar 01
  2. From WinRAR tool bar, choose "Extract to" option.force extract rar 02
  3. The Extraction path and options window will pop up. Choose a destination path to store the extracted RAR file.
  4. Tick "Keep broken files" option under Miscellaneous section.force extract rar 03
  5. Select OK button to start the extraction of your broken RAR archive file. Ignore any error messages if popping up. Finally check to see if you can access to the extracted file.

 

#4 Repair corrupted RAR file with Recovery Toolbox

In addition to WinRAR, there is one more corrupted RAR file repair software you can try for free --- Recovery Toolbox for RAR. This archive repair tool is designed to recover information from corrupted archives in RAR format, which can be used to completely avoid or at least minimize losses due to compressed data. 

  1. Download and install this RAR Recovery Kit on your PC.recovery toolbox for rar 01
  2. After installation, this repair software will automatically open.
  3. Select the damaged RAR file to be repaired > click Next.recovery toolbox for rar 02
  4. Select the files or folders you need to keep from the damaged RAR archive > click Next.recovery toolbox for rar 03
  5. Select a destination directory to save the recovered data > click Next to finish. Finally you can get the repaired RAR in the selected path.recovery toolbox for rar 04

 

Tips to Prevent RAR Files Corruption

As an old proverb goes, a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. After feeling frustrated about corrupted RAR files and searching hard for solution, it would be wiser for you to take some precautions for avoiding RAR archive corruption in days to come. Check the tips below:

  • Apply formal and official RAR compression/extraction programs only.
  • Do not download RAR archive files from insecure websites.
  • Check internet connect and device battery before downloading to avoid incomplete download
  • Install a reliable anti-virus application on your computer and keep updating its latest version.
  • Avoid unrestrained use of your computer.  
  • Check disk performance and repair in time

 

Final Words

Corrupted RAR files and deleted RAR files are totally 2 different things, you need different solutions to fix or restore the file. And it is always helpful to have Cisdem Data Recovery loaded onto your computer, which recovers deleted and lost RAR files, also recovers corrupted documents, videos or photos in a RAR.

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Connie Yu

Connie Yu has been a columnist in the field of data recovery since 2011. She studied a lot of data loss situations and tested repeatedly to find a feasible solution tailored for each case. And her solutions are always updated to fix problems from the newest systems, devices and apps.

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  • Delia Wright

    You are right. Online or free RAR repair tools are mostly not reliable. But in contrast, WinRAR is a worthwhile application to deal with corrupted RAR archives.

    1 years ago commonReply

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