Step 4 Task: Find the one main .rar file, and extract (decompress) it using right click.
How:
- Using Windows File Explorer or My Computer, find the primary RAR file. It will have an icon shape of 3 tiny books, and will likely be the only file with a .rar extension at the end of its name.
Tip: use (Window button) - E on your keyboard to quick launch Windows File Explorer.
- Right click on that single primary .rar file, and “extract to” a subfolder (This is usually the third choice in the R. click menu) Make a mental note of the name of the folder you are creating, as you will need to “mount” that folder later.
- Confirm “yes” to the resulting dialog boxes, and give the WinRAR about 2 minutes to do its extracting job.
- The software will decompress the primary RAR file, and it will also auto-link it to the dozens of its sister .r## supporting files. You only extract the one primary RAR file … the software will take care of the sister files behind the scenes.
- The final result will be a .bin and .cue file, or a .dat and .cue file.
Explanation: Large movie files archives are comprised of dozens of .r01, .r02, .r03 files. Each of these files is commonly 14,649kb large.
This is how WinRAR purposefully packages a large file. WinRAR squeezes it down into dozens of smaller linked “sister” .r## files, often half the original size.
Tip: right click on one of the .r## files, and check its properties. You can see a graph of how much it was compressed from its original file size.
