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 "cannot open volume"; 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.

To confirm what an A02 file belongs to, open the folder and sort by name so related pieces line up, then look for files sharing the exact same base name—if you see `backup.a02`, you should also see `backup.a00` and `backup.a01`, and maybe `backup.a03` or more—then check for a main starter like `backup.arj`, which you’d open instead of A02; if there’s no `.arj` but a sequence beginning with `.a00`, then `.a00` is the correct starter, and you can right-click it and choose 7-Zip → Open archive to verify it loads, while missing numbers or mismatched filenames indicate broken sets that require finding the missing parts.

Saying A02 is "part 3" means it serves as the third continuation block in a split archive created by dividing one compressed file into `.A00`, `.A01`, `. If you cherished this article and you would like to collect more info relating to A02 file software kindly visit the web page. A02`, so A02 isn’t its own format but a direct continuation of the same compressed stream, and because the header and file list appear in the first segment or `.ARJ`, A02 alone will fail to open; if identical prefixes like `something.a00`, `something.a01`, and `something.a02` appear, keep them unified and open the first volume so the tool retrieves data from later parts automatically.

An A02 file typically won’t open by itself because it’s one of the middle volumes in a split archive, and the critical metadata—archive header, index, compression specs, and integrity data—lives in the initial file like `.A00` or `.ARJ`, so when you open A02 directly, the tool finds no header at the start and throws errors like "file corrupt", even though the set may be fine; placing all volumes in one folder and opening the first one is what allows the extractor to pull A02 and the rest in sequence.

When a tool like 7-Zip or WinRAR "uses" A02, it isn’t opening it individually, because extraction starts from the initial `.ARJ` or `.A00` which contains the archive header, and volume data is consumed sequentially—first `.A00`, then `.A01`, then `.A02`—without any manual merging; if A02 is absent or corrupted, you get errors such as "next volume missing".