An A02 file isn’t a standalone format and won’t open individually because the structural header lives in the first chunk, so programs return errors such as "corrupt archive"; proper extraction requires placing all volumes in one folder and opening the starter—either the main .ARJ or the .A00—allowing archive tools to pull automatically from A01, A02, etc.; if issues occur, they usually reference missing files, incomplete parts, or CRC errors, and sorting the directory by name helps verify that every expected volume is present.

If you are you looking for more information on file extension A02 stop by the site. To figure out which set an A02 file belongs to, sort the file list by name so related pieces align, check for identical prefixes—`backup.a00`, `backup.a01`, `backup.a02`—and see whether a main file like `backup.arj` is present, which should be opened first; if no `.arj` exists and the sequence starts at `.a00`, that’s your starting volume, and you can confirm by opening it with 7-Zip or WinRAR, while any missing middle numbers or mismatched names mean extraction will fail until the missing or damaged parts are recovered.

Calling an A02 "part 3" means it’s the third numbered chunk of a larger split archive made when a tool divides a big compressed file into `.A00`, `.A01`, `.A02`, etc., so A02 isn’t a standalone format but a continuation of data, and since the header and catalog reside in the first volume (or a `.ARJ` file), A02 alone looks unrecognized; if you spot matching names like `something.a00`, `something.a01`, `something.a02`, place them together and open the starter so extraction can proceed through A01 and A02 automatically.

An A02 file often won’t open because it’s the third segment of the set, and archive formats expect the header, file list, compression info, and checksums to appear in the opening volume (`.A00` or a main `.ARJ`), so an extractor checking A02’s beginning sees no valid signature and reports "cannot open as archive"; keeping all parts together and launching the first volume is how the archive tool correctly reads A01, A02, etc. to rebuild the original content.

When an extractor "uses" an A02 file, it’s simply pulling more bytes from it because all structure lives in the starter (`.ARJ` or `.A00`), and as the tool decompresses, it requests the next sequential piece—`.A01`, then `.A02`—to continue the data stream; if A02 is mislabeled, misplaced, or broken, the process halts with messages like "unexpected end".