How to extract a set of *.tar.gz.(letters) files?

Question

I have downloaded a medical data set to use in machine learning and the files are like this:

dicom_v1.tar.gz.aa
dicom_v1.tar.gz.ab
dicom_v1.tar.gz.ac
dicom_v1.tar.gz.ad

I don't know how to extract these files. When I use WinRAR or 7-Zip, it doesn't work.

It is written in the attached ReadMe file:

To decompress this data set execute in a Unix command line:
cat dicom_archive.tar.* | tar -xzvf

How can I do this in Windows 10 as I am a beginner?

Answer 1

These files have been split into chunks for distribution, so you need to put them back together before you can see whether Winrar or 7-zip will be able to extract them.

Since you're using Windows, you probably want to the Powershell get-content command (which helpfully aliased to cat btw) - and since the files are chunks of a compressed archive you probably want to use the -raw argument too.

https://shellgeek.com/use-cat-equivalent-type-command-in-windows/ is a good page to read.

I would try something like this as a starting point:

PS C:\> get-content -raw dicom_v1.tar.gz.* > dicom_v1.tar.gz

According to https://pureinfotech.com/extract-tar-gz-files-windows-10/ you should be able to run tar with the z flag natively in Powershell to extract all the files from the dicom archive.