Restore SQL Server DB without transaction log

Question

Given a SQL Server 2008 .bak file, is there a way to restore the data file only from the .bak file, without t

Answer 1

No, the transaction log is required.

Option 1:

An option may be to restore it to a machine that you DO have enough space on. Then on the restored copy change the logging to either bulk logged or simple, shrink the logs, do another backup operation on this new copy and then use that to restore to the target machine with the now much smaller transaction log.

Option 2:

Alternatively, perhaps the contact at the external source could shrink the transaction log before sending it to you (this may not work if the log is large due to a lot of big transactions).

Docs on the command to shrink the log file are available here.