unRARing files fails at random

[Turbonium]

Followup thread: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=649378

Say I have the following archive files:

file.r00

file.r01

file.r02

file.r03

If I try and unRAR them, it will fail at random, citing corrupted files. It may happen on r01, it might happen on r02, etc. It's completely random.

The same set of files will successfully unRAR without errors at times. Totally random!

Vista Business 32-bit

WinRAR 3.71

Please help, this is bloody annoying, and disconcerting.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Turbonium

[sensurround]

If possible, you should try to test the files on a different machine to make sure nothing is wrong with them. Judging from the fact that they successfully decompressed at least once, the files themselves are probably fine though. If the same thing happens on another box,, then you know something's not right with the files.

Aside from that, my first guess would be that your RAM may be dying. I have had similar problems when I pushed an overclock a bit too far. You can test your RAM with Memtest+ I'd let it run overnight if possible, but if you want to test right away let it do at least a full pass or two. It's been my experience that if memory fails in Memtest it fails pretty early on. I know this is not always the case, though.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I am sure someone else can provide additional insight.

Hope this helps!

[SuperKid]

Try upgrading to WinRAR 3.80 beta 2 at www.rarlabs.com, maybe it was a known bug and is fixed now?

[Budious]

I've seen this many times with unstable memory frequencies and timings. As suggested by sensurround, use memtest or microsoft memory diagnostic to boot and run through the advanced tests for at least 3 cycles.

[Rudy]

if it's really random then I would suggest running memtest

[Knightwolf20024]

try another program like 7zip.

[Raa]

Agreed, do a memtest, that's almost always the cause of that issue!

Side note: you should never try and unrar a .R01, 02 etc file.

ALWAYS unrar the .RAR file!

[Turbonium]

Tested memory and it's fine.

Did SCANDISK and it's fine.

Files unRARed without issue on another machine.

Just tried it again on the problem machine, and it magically worked.

Truly random.

[Turbonium]

  Turbonium said:

Tested memory and it's fine.

Did SCANDISK and it's fine.

Files unRARed without issue on another machine.

Just tried it again on the problem machine, and it magically worked.

Truly random.

bump

Anyone have any clue? I just tried unRARing the same file again and it failed at 66%

It unRARed without issues two days ago.

I'd be asking this on a WinRAR forum, but I can't find an official one.

[dt]

Try using 7zip and see what happens.

[Turbonium]

  dt said:

Try using 7zip and see what happens.

Tried it, didn't work either.

What's peculiar is that it is not failing at the same location everytime (which is different than last time)... around 2% on both WinRAR and 7Zip.

The RAR files are currently stored on an external drive by the way. It seems like every time I move it or something, it behaves differently. It was unpackaging just fine a few hours ago!

And this is where it gets REALLY weird:

I've been trying to figure out the source of random crashes I've been getting for months now (BSODs, sometimes accompanied by automated scandisks). As part of my Debugging Tools install, I downloaded a Windows Symbol Package from here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/Deb.../symbolpkg.mspx

When I tried to unpackage the CAB files (self-extracting), it would always complain about corrupt files about halfway through. I tried extracting it with WinRAR, and same error, also at 50%. I tried it with 7Zip and it worked!

This is so weird, I really don't know what the problem is. It's like my entire system can't unpackage anything reliably, regardless of the files, or the source drive, or the application being used.

EDIT:

Alright, so I just tried unRARing the original problem files again, and they're working magically, when literally 10 seconds ago they weren't!

And just to clarify: this sort of thing happens with ANY sort of archive file being extracted with this system. RARs, ZIPs, and self-extracting files, with either winRAR or 7Zip, and on any hard drive, internal or external.

The issue is not the files themselves.

[Turbonium]

I ran some more Vista memory tests (5 passes Extended), and it still came out clean.

Attempted to unpackage some CAB files and it would always report corrupt files. I tried doing yet another SCANDISK and retried extracting the CAB files and it worked.

Everything seems to point towards a bad file system. The Event Viewer shows 17 Ntfs errors within the last 2 months:

"The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume OS."

(I only found out about these by actually opening the Event Viewer - it never really gave me a warning on screen)

Furthermore, using dumpchk.exe, some (though not all) of my BSOD minidumps report the following:

"Probably caused by : Ntfs.sys ( Ntfs!NtfsPagingFileIo+138 )"

I accessed my disk's SMART data and everything is operationally sound.

What do you guys think? I've ran SCANDISK probably 6 times in the past 2 months, with half the time it being forced by the OS on a BSOD reboot.

Is it a physical fault with the disk? Corrupted MFT? Corrupt OS install? Something else maybe?

Edited July 16, 2008 by Turbonium

[ThePitt]

try with another OS :p

[bloodrain]

  ThePitt said:

try with another OS :p

its comments like these that ruin forums, flame bait much?

[Turbonium]

For what it's worth, here are HD Tach Extended Test results (ran in XP SP2 compatibility mode):

Seems hella slow to me, though it may just be a result of running compatibility mode, or the fact that I've been adding/deleting GBs of files over the past day without a defrag (current freespace on disk is ~13GB, was <1GB about 24 hours ago before I moved some files over to an external).

EDIT: My bad, but perhaps notebook HDDs are supposed to be this slow. If so, disregard the HD Tach info. Was just trying to use it as evidence for a potentially failing HDD.

[kryten]

I didn't read if you were overclocking anything. If you are overclocking anything, knock it off!!! Today's hardware is just fine at stock speeds. If not, then, well...we'll have to look elsewhere.

Edited July 16, 2008 by kryten

[Turbonium]

  kryten said:

I didn't read if you were overclocking anything. If you are overclocking anything, knock it off!!! Today's hardware is just fine at stock speeds. If not, then, well...we'll have to look elsewhere.

I don't overclock, and if I did, I would have enough sense to set it back to default before I come here to waste your time. ;)

[PermaSt0ne]

  kryten said:

I didn't read if you were overclocking anything. If you are overclocking anything, knock it off!!! Today's hardware is just fine at stock speeds. If not, then, well...we'll have to look elsewhere.

today's hardware is just fine with overclocked speeds. there's no reason to "knock it off"

@Turbonium - do you get these issues in safe mode? and have you tried the windows repair disc to see if it can detect anything wrong with your installation?

[Turbonium]

  PermaSt0ne said:

@Turbonium - do you get these issues in safe mode? and have you tried the windows repair disc to see if it can detect anything wrong with your installation?

I haven't tried Safe Mode, nor the repair option.

You might want to check this out though everyone, as there's been an interesting development: https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=649378

Edited July 16, 2008 by Turbonium