# Error trying to extract from a Winrar archive, can someone help me?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/error-trying-to-extract-from-a-winrar-archive-can-someone-help-me/111875>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 1, 2002, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/error-trying-to-extract-from-a-winrar-archive-can-someone-help-me/111875 "2002-06-01T10:22:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/error-trying-to-extract-from-a-winrar-archive-can-someone-help-me/111875/1 "2002-06-01T10:22:35Z")

</div>

Trying to extract a multimedia file from a rar file set I recently downloaded from usenet, I got the following error:  
**You need to start extraction from a previous volume to unpack (file)**

I have the full set of .rxx files, verified using the .par file included with the set. I tried starting the extraction from both the .rar file and the .r00 file, and got the same error message. I tried googling the error message, and got nothing useful. Can anyone tell me what this error message means, and/or how to fix it?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/error-trying-to-extract-from-a-winrar-archive-can-someone-help-me/111875/2 "2002-06-01T11:19:06Z")

</div>

Which version of WinRAR are you using? It’s possible that you are trying to extract from an WinRAR 3.0 archive with a 2.X version. Ver. 3.0 is not backwards compatible. [Download the new version here.](http://www.rarlab.com/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/error-trying-to-extract-from-a-winrar-archive-can-someone-help-me/111875/3 "2002-06-01T13:37:24Z")

</div>

Damn, I should have addressed this in the OP. I am using Winrar 3.0, the latest version. The archive from which I am trying to extract looks like a Winrar 2.x archive, ie it is in the format .r00, .r01, .r02 etc, but 3.0 is backwards compatible.