Good question. In the 90s and early 2000s, splitting was essential because:
The utility reads the final .zip file, realizes it needs the previous segments, and stitches them together to output the final file. extract split zip files
And next time someone sends you project_final_FINAL_v2.z01 through project_final_FINAL_v2.z09 , you can smile calmly, fire up 7‑Zip, and feel like a digital archaeologist. Good question
Note: If the zip was created in a non-standard way, you might need to combine them first (see Method 4). realizes it needs the previous segments