How to open rar. files? And what the heck are they anyway?

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When I see a list of rar. files that say part 1 or part 2 of something-or-other etc., does that mean that one has to download all of those files in order to see what they are?
I tried opening individual rar. files with a free rar. 'expander' that I downloaded from the internet, but couldn't extract anything.
Are rar. files somehow a series of links that must all be opened at once. This is puzzlement.
Can anyone explain, and maybe recommend a program that can open them easily on an iMac running Snow Leopard?
TIA
 
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When I see a list of rar. files that say part 1 or part 2 of something-or-other etc., does that mean that one has to download all of those files in order to see what they are?
I tried opening individual rar. files with a free rar. 'expander' that I downloaded from the internet, but couldn't extract anything.
Are rar. files somehow a series of links that must all be opened at once. This is puzzlement.
Can anyone explain, and maybe recommend a program that can open them easily on an iMac running Snow Leopard?
TIA

RAR files are much like zip files, but they can come in multiple parts to facilitate being emailed one part at a time to circumvent limits in attachment sizes. When you open one part of a multi-part RAR set, it will look for the others. You don't have to open anything in order… opening any one will be fine… but you must have them all. The Unarchiver and UnRarX are two tools that will open these up.
 
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RAR files are much like zip files, but they can come in multiple parts to facilitate being emailed one part at a time to circumvent limits in attachment sizes. When you open one part of a multi-part RAR set, it will look for the others. You don't have to open anything in order… opening any one will be fine… but you must have them all. The Unarchiver and UnRarX are two tools that will open these up.

Thanks a bunch for quick answer. That helps.

Cheers...
Lindsay Gray
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Moving thread as this doesn't have anything to do with photography, images, or photography.
 
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chas_m

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The larger question here is "why would you download something when you don't know what it is??"

This is how viruses spread (on the PC).
 
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You can use a program called UnRaR X for the mac
 

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