An ARH file isn’t limited to a single definition, so context is the most reliable clue; one common source is Siemens ProTool, where ARH acts as a packaged HMI project for storage, transfer, or backup—typical if it originated from factory systems or directories referencing Siemens, ProTool, WinCC, STEP7, S7, or HMI—while another possibility is ArheoStratigraf, an archaeology tool where ARH files store stratigraphy documentation and diagrams like Harris Matrices, usually found in excavation folders labeled contexts, trench, layers, or matrix.

To determine what your ARH file actually is, the most direct check is to try opening it with 7-Zip or WinRAR because many ARH files act as archive containers; if it opens, you can inspect the extracted contents—project directories, configs, images, databases—which usually hints at a ProTool-style packaged project, whereas a failure to open often just means it’s in a proprietary format requiring ProTool or ArheoStratigraf, and a useful trick is renaming a copy to `.zip` or `.rar` to see whether it extracts, with the best opening strategy depending on your needs: if you only want assets, extraction may be enough, but proper viewing/editing requires the original program.

Because many ARH files encapsulate multiple resources, they may be stored as compressed containers, so opening them with 7-Zip or WinRAR is a smart first step; if they open, you’ll see folders with configs, databases, images, or logs that quickly identify the source, and you can extract assets directly, but if they don’t, the ARH may just be a proprietary format, and copying and renaming the extension to `.zip` or `. If you liked this article so you would like to be given more info with regards to ARH file recovery generously visit the website. rar` can reveal whether it’s a standard archive, making this test an easy way to classify the ARH and possibly recover data.

An ARH file cannot be reliably identified by extension alone since ".ARH" is a reused, non-standard extension; determining its type depends on its origin—industrial automation environments use ARH for packaged HMI/PLC projects, and archaeology uses it for ArheoStratigraf data—and checking whether it extracts in 7-Zip helps confirm if it’s an archive or proprietary.

What this means in practice is that ".ARH" acts as a name tag rather than a true format, because multiple unrelated programs can reuse the same suffix; an ARH from industrial automation might be a Siemens/ProTool HMI package holding screens, tag databases, alarms, and configs, while an ARH from archaeology may instead be an ArheoStratigraf project storing stratigraphy/context relationships and diagram layout data, so even filenames like `project.arh` can hide completely different contents, making context—source, neighboring files, and tests like 7-Zip—the safest way to identify whether it’s an extractable archive or a proprietary project.

You can usually identify what kind of ARH file you have by examining the *company it keeps*—the folder, nearby filenames, and the type of work it came from—because ".ARH" itself doesn’t define the format; when the ARH appears in industrial automation or HMI backup folders alongside terms like Siemens, ProTool, WinCC, STEP7/S7, PLC, HMI, tags, or alarms, it’s almost always the Siemens ProTool compressed project type, but when it’s found in archaeology folders labeled trench, context, stratigraphy, matrix, layers, or excavation and surrounded by dig photos, drawings, or context sheets, it’s more likely an ArheoStratigraf project, and if context still isn’t obvious, opening it with 7-Zip is a quick test—an archive-like structure suggests a packed project, while a "not an archive" message points toward a proprietary file requiring the original software.