An MD5 checksum (MD5 cryptographic hash) is a 32-character code generated from the contents of a file. It provides a quick way to verify file integrity. After downloading, you can compare the calculated checksum with the value provided in the md5.txt file. If the checksums match, the file has not been altered or corrupted during transfer.
Where is the checksum file?
The text file containing the checksums (for example, data_md5.txt) is always located in the same folder as the data files. A line in this file usually has the following format: <hash> <file_name>
(for example, d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e sample1.gz).
After downloading the data, immediately navigate to the destination directory and verify the MD5 checksums before processing or moving the files or starting bioinformatics analysis.
macOS (Terminal)
01Navigate to the parent folder in which the downloaded data are located. For example, if the data were downloaded to a Desktop folder named ID111, which contains separate Clean Reads and Raw reads folders, open the ID111 folder.
02Right-click the folder containing the files you want to check, such as the Clean reads folder, and select New Terminal Tab in Folder.
03enter the following in the open Terminal window:
04Wait until all files in the folder have been checked, and then compare the results with the data_md5.txt text file received from us.
05If all files have the same MD5 checksums, the data download was successful and none of the files was corrupted. If any of the files has a different checksum from the one we provided, download that file again and verify it once more.
06If the MD5 values still do not match after downloading the file again, please contact your Account Manager. contact@weseq.it
07Wait until all files in the folder have been checked, and then compare the results with the data_md5.txt text file received from us.
08If all files have the same MD5 checksums, the data download was successful and none of the files was corrupted. If any of the files has a different checksum from the one we provided, download that file again and verify it once more.
09If the MD5 values still do not match after downloading the file again, please contact your Account Manager. contact@weseq.it
Terminal · macOS
md5 *
Windows
Open PowerShell in the folder (Shift + Right-click the folder → "Open in PowerShell").
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