Warning This user guide is intended for users who are working with FASTQ.ORA files AND who are not using the DRAGEN secondary analysis software.
DRAGEN v3.8 has introduced ORA Compression, a fully lossless compression algorithm to compress FASTQ.GZ files at a ratio up to x5 vs FASTQ.GZ. FASTQ.ORA files can be used as-is within the DRAGEN ecosystem. For users who are not using the DRAGEN secondary analysis software, FASTQ.ORA files can either be:
used as-is, in a seamless manner, with most common downstream software, using DRAGEN ORA Helper Suite standalone software; or
decompressed, using DRAGEN ORA Decompression standalone software.
These two standalone software can be downloaded for free, from the ORA Support Site
Please refer to the relevant user guide for using them.