What Do ".Part" and ".Rar" File Extensions Mean?

It's common now to download files that a few years ago would have been prohibitively large. Despite this, there are still instances where it is better or easier to cut the file into smaller parts. The pieces get put back together again once the whole thing is downloaded.

There is another advantage to this. Large files that get interrupted or corrupted might be unsalvageable and need to be downloaded again in their entirety. When segmented, however, the downloader can sometimes skip over downloading the parts it's already downloaded again, making the whole process faster. Files can be broken into pieces in several ways.

One option that software companies use is to separate the file into parts. These files have the ".part" file extension appended to them while they are downloading. Once the download is complete, the downloader program will reassemble the file and transform it into the type of file you were downloading with the right extension and the ".part" file or files will no longer exist.

Things can happen during the download that corrupt or stop a file download, though. If you've ever tried to download something and ended up with a ".part" file, you've experienced this problem. Generally, there is no way to use a ".part" file or file extension part as it is only a piece of the larger program and cannot function on its own, the same way that a single piece of a car cannot be used to drive you to the store. Instead, you need the different ".part" files to be reassembled into something you can use.

If the download is still in progress, these ".part" files will eventually disappear on their own. Watch the download progress to see if the ".part" file remains after the download has completed and your computer has had time to reassemble the file. If the file is not downloading, or if the downloader gave you an error message, you may need to delete or cancel the download and attempt to download the file again.

You can also break a file into parts by using the rar file extension. This is an abbreviation of "Roshal Archive Compressed File," a type of file similar to a ".zip" file in that it is used to shrink, or compress, a large file into a smaller one for easier transmission. These files are similar to ".part" files in that they involve pieces of a larger file that will need to be reassembled.

You can use a ".rar" file by extracting it with a special program. Some operating systems come with integrated decompression ability, so you may not even need a separate program to do this for you. Once the decompression program has reassembled the file, you will have a new file with a different extension, depending on the type of file you were downloading.