.ARC File

The arc file extension is mainly related to ARC, a lossless data compression and archival format created by System Enhancement Associated (SAE).

It was very popular format during the early days of networked Bulletin Board System (BBS).

The ARC format made obsolete the use of combinations of the SQ program to compress files and the LU program to create the LBR archives by combining the functions of both compression and archiving into single program.

There are several extension variants of this format. Beside arc, there is also ark and sue format This archive file format was also used by PKARC, QUARK and SQUASH.

It is likely that many programs used this format to pack their files, either for backup or file archiving purpose.

Note: There is a program called FreeArc that also uses arc extension for its archives. It is a different format.

How to open:

Many file compression utiltiies nowadays support the original ARC format.

How to convert:

As this format is well supported, you may freely repack .arc archives to other compressed archives, including the common RAR, ZIP or 7zip archives.