diff --git a/focoos/utils/system.py b/focoos/utils/system.py
index 8217e6f..70ab5af 100644
--- a/focoos/utils/system.py
+++ b/focoos/utils/system.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import importlib.metadata as metadata
 import os
 import platform
+import shutil
 import subprocess
 import sys
 import tarfile
@@ -266,7 +267,7 @@ def is_inside_sagemaker():
     return res
 
 
-def list_dir(base_directory: Union[str, Path]) -> List[Path]:
+def list_directories(base_directory: Union[str, Path]) -> List[Path]:
     """
     A function that lists directories within a base directory.
 
@@ -310,10 +311,9 @@ def extract_archive(
     # Determine the extraction path
     t0 = time.time()
     base_dir = os.path.dirname(archive_path)
+    extracted_dir = base_dir
     if destination is not None:
         extracted_dir = os.path.join(base_dir, destination)
-    else:
-        extracted_dir = base_dir
 
     if comm.is_main_process():
         logger.info(f"Extracting archive: {archive_path} to {extracted_dir}")
@@ -340,8 +340,24 @@ def extract_archive(
         logger.info(f"[elapsed {t1 - t0:.3f} ] Extracted archive to: {extracted_dir}")
 
     comm.synchronize()
-    if len(list_dir(extracted_dir)) == 1:
-        extracted_dir = list_dir(extracted_dir)[0]
+    # Remove __MACOSX directory
+    if "__MACOSX" in os.listdir(extracted_dir):
+        shutil.rmtree(os.path.join(extracted_dir, "__MACOSX"))
+
+    if len(list_directories(extracted_dir)) == 1:
+        extracted_dir = list_directories(extracted_dir)[0]
+
+    POSSIBLE_TRAIN_DIRS = ["train", "training"]
+    POSSIBLE_VAL_DIRS = ["valid", "val", "validation"]
+    inner_dirs = list_directories(extracted_dir)
+    if not any(dir.name in POSSIBLE_TRAIN_DIRS for dir in inner_dirs):
+        raise FileNotFoundError(
+            f"Train split not found in {extracted_dir}: {[str(x) for x in inner_dirs]}. You should provide a zip dataset with only a root folder or train and val subfolders."
+        )
+    if not any(dir.name in POSSIBLE_VAL_DIRS for dir in inner_dirs):
+        raise FileNotFoundError(
+            f"Validation split not found in {extracted_dir}: {[str(x) for x in inner_dirs]}. You should provide a zip dataset with only a root folder or train and val subfolders."
+        )
 
     # Optionally delete the original archive
     if delete_original: