Exporting tables from a SQL Server backup (.bak) to Parquet without restoring it

FastBCP 1.6 exports a table from a SQL Server full backup to Parquet, with no restore and no SQL Server instance. On a 320 GB production backup, the first open took 2 min 29 s and later ones 0.3 s. With 24 threads, a 175-million-row table then went to Parquet in 29.6 seconds. FastTransfer can load the files into SQL Server, on any version, or into PostgreSQL.

FastBCP 1.6 reads a table straight out of a SQL Server full backup. You point it at a .bak file, name a table, and get Parquet files. There is no restore, no SQL Server instance, and no credentials to manage.

Parquet is the only output for now. That is enough to close the loop, though: FastTransfer loads those files into the SQL Server instance of your choice, and that instance can run an older version than the one that took the backup. RESTORE cannot do that.