How to Skip Recovery Volumes in UnRAR

When extracting split RAR archives, the unrar utility automatically scans for and processes recovery volumes (.rev files) if standard volumes are missing or damaged. While recovery volumes help rebuild corrupted sets, this check can slow down operations or cause unwanted reconstruction attempts. You can instruct unrar to bypass or ignore recovery volume checks by using exclusion masks, keeping broken files directly, or isolating the primary archive files.

Exclude Recovery Volumes with the -x Switch

The most direct way to stop unrar from checking or reading .rev files in the working directory is by using the exclusion switch -x. Appending this switch with a wildcard mask prevents unrar from interacting with any recovery volumes associated with the archive set.

Run the extraction command with the exclude flag:

unrar x -x*.rev archive.part01.rar
  • x: Extracts files with full paths.
  • -x*.rev: Explicitly excludes all files ending in .rev from the operation.

Prevent Reconstruction Triggers with -kb

By default, unrar triggers a check for recovery volumes when it encounters missing chunks or CRC errors in standard volume archives. If you want unrar to extract whatever intact data exists without halting to check or reconstruct data via .rev files, use the -kb (Keep Broken) switch:

unrar x -kb archive.part01.rar

The -kb flag tells the utility to retain partially extracted or corrupted files on disk instead of aborting the process and seeking .rev parity blocks to perform repairs.

Move or Isolate .rev Files

The unrar tool only searches for recovery volumes in the current working directory or the specific path where the archive resides. If you want to ensure no recovery checks take place during automated batch scripts without altering existing flag structures, isolate the .rev files:

  1. Move all .rev files into a temporary subfolder before extraction: 
    mkdir -p ./rev_backup && mv *.rev ./rev_backup/
  2. Execute your standard unrar extraction command.
  3. Move the files back if you need to retain them for long-term parity storage.