I need to download a large zip file (200 GB), unzip it (not sure how large it will become, but assume < 1 TB), and extract a few files from it (likely < 1 GB). My hard drive can't handle the amount of data, and I don't have an external drive with the required space or a cloud storage account.
Is there a way for me to extract the files I need without external storage?
If you will accept a non-cloud solution, 7-Zip (available for Windows, Linux, and as Keka for MacOS) can open the directory within a ZIP file without extracting the entire file. It will show you the contents, and allow you to selectively extract only specified files, so you need not unpack everything just to get what you need.
If that won't work, you can park your 200GB file in Google One for $3/mo. (or 2TB for $10/mo.) as they have a 5TB individual file size limit, and the ZipExtractor extension allows you to open files in the Google Drive cloud and extract from them. I asked the ZipExtractor publisher if there's a cap on source file size to extract from and you can see the answer (when one is provided) at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/zip-extractor/mmfcakoljjhncfphlflcedhgogfhpbcd by clicking on Support.
get an external hard drive. inistall 7-Zip in 7-zip go to options>settings>files there choose a specific drive location that you have free space on(External HDD) then restart the app. in 7-zip open the zip or rar file. choose the file you want and instead of extracting click on COPY and give it the output direction. =D this actually is a trick that makes the extractor to extract and copy to the specific location at a same time. ;)
If there are still somebody having such problem, try my script in https://github.com/auto-Dog/delete_when_unzip. I use stream of file and delete unzipped parts once it is used. So the required space does not become double when unzip, just as large as the files.
