Why can't I open a specific rar file in a specific computer, but it opens on other computer?

It's pretty much the topic. I have a 8 GB rar file that opens in my windows 8.1 pc, but it doesn't open in my old laptop with windows 7. I tried 7zip and i have the same result.

It always says it's unknown archive or damaged, but it opens perfectly on my newest computer.

Any hint on why would this happen?

Edit: I forgot to mention I have another old laptop with windows 7, in which the same problem would occur.

2 Answers

The answer was that @ng80092b had less available RAM than the size of the archive he was trying to open. The solution to this problem was re-creating the archive split in to smaller chunks. I recommend using 2GB chunks for compatibility with systems that only have 4GB of total RAM.

Instructions for 7-Zip:Splitting up files

1. Start the 7-Zip software

Navigate to the location of the file you wish to split

2. Select the file and select 'Add' from the toolbar (green + icon)

In the resulting dialogue box,

change 'archive type' to ZIP
'Split to volumes, bytes' - 2048M

7-Zip will save slices of the original file into the same folder, with a .zip suffix followed by a sequence number (e.g. 'test.zip.001, test.zip.002, ...)

Source:

Try running memory diagnostics on the computer in question. I had this exact same issue on win 7 x64 with WinRAR. It wound up being a bad ddr3 memory module.