Extract text from Archive or assessment files (SRA)
To convert SRA Archives to another format, you need SRA Toolkit or other Data software.
To convert other file formats to the "Bioinformatics Data Archive" file type, you need software like SRA Toolkit or a similar tool.
The .SRA file extension is primarily used for Sequence Read Archive data files maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). These files store heavily compressed, raw Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) genetic data. Alternatively, .SRA files are created by the HHS Security Risk Assessment Tool to store healthcare HIPAA compliance data. Older legacy software, such as Nova Development's Scrapbook Factory, also uses .SRA for Microsoft Compound-based project files. Finally, some Nintendo 64 emulators like Snes9x use it for game save data.
The main disadvantage of the NCBI .SRA format is its highly specialized, proprietary nature. Users cannot open these files in standard text editors because they are compressed binary archives that often span tens of gigabytes. To work with the genetic data, users must install the command-line SRA Toolkit. Similarly, HHS compliance .SRA files are isolated Java databases that require the official desktop app to read, making them frustrating to share with auditors.
For bioinformatics use cases, the best conversion targets are FASTQ or SAM files, which integrate seamlessly into standard sequencing pipelines. For the HHS tool, users should export their data to PDF or JSON formats. Emulator save files generally cannot be converted.
Because .SRA files serve completely distinct purposes depending on their origin, standard online converters fail to process them. They are closed formats that rely on specialized engines to decode the internal data. However, you can drag and drop your file onto convert.guru to identify the format, view it, and convert it when possible. Our system inspects the file headers to determine if it is a genetic archive, an HHS database, or a Scrapbook project, and can extract text or underlying embedded formats when supported.
Convert.Guru analyzes your SRA file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted SRM, N64, ZIP, SAM, FMS, MOC, SAV, BAM and FASTA files.
If you want to convert SRA file to SRM, SAV, BAM, FASTA, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI or CFG, you can use SRA Toolkit or similar software from the "Genetic Sequencing Data Archive" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to SRA, try SRA Toolkit or another comparable tool in the "Genetic Sequencing Data Archive" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our SRA converter.