Today while extracting a RAR file made with 7zip I picked up a large number of errors in the process. The problem is the path, and/or filename surpassed the 260 characters which happen to be set by 7zip. Below I will give you two tricks that will help you solve the issue.

The files and folders being extracted had been deep into one of many users Temporary directories that may cause the additional long paths thus causing the 7zip problem. The tricks below will help shorten the path that the files and folders are being extracted to, and this should certainly solve any kind of problems throughout the uncompress procedure.

Trick 1: Rename the 7zip File

In this particular instance, I was extracting a file called hacks.7z which in turn creates a folder for your files to be extracted called hacks/. Occasionally the file name is going to be longer thus including more characters to the extraction path. You need first to rename the ZIP or 7z file to something shorter such as a.zip or a.7z. Therefore in my instance it only saves me five characters through the length of the path dependent upon the name of the file. This may save a lot more characters from your length of the path.

Trick 2: Extract to the Root Directory

I had been extracting to my wife’s laptop on a completely different computer however it was adding “C:\Documents and Settings\User\Desktop” to the path. Rather if you extract to the root of the actual C directory, this can conserve a whole lot more characters. In this instance, I spared 33 more characters.

After using each of the above tricks, I have been able to extract the 7z file without having any problems.