Downloading fMRI Data

[Brendan Wood]

Hi there,

We wish to download the HCP-YA functional MRI data, however, we do not have enough local storage space and must download the data to a remote server. As I understand it, the only way to download the data is to visit balsa, select the imaging package, and download the data with a connection to aspera. 

Is there any workaround for downloading the latest release of the data with only command line tools?

Thank you.

[Elam, Jennifer]

Hi Brendan,

We are working on a plan for implementing one or more alternatives to the Aspera GUI, but they are not yet in place. The HCP does not support command line access via Aspera due the version of Aspera we have.  For now, we recommend mounting some part of your cluster filesystem with adequate space on a machine where you can install Aspera Connect and open a browser with the Aspera Connect plugin. 

 

For Linux OSs we recommend using Chrome or Chromium plugins. One group reported Debian 11 with Chrome works, but they did not have success with Debian 12 or 13. This incompatibility might be due to the fact that our Aspera server has been in use for ~12 years and is aging. We should be able to get something else in place in the coming months, but we didn't want to hold up data releases when Aspera is still working for most users. 

 

Also, in the BALSA UI, you can filter for a subset of subjects using the Save Custom Subject Group button that will apply to both the non-imaging and imaging data packages that you can queue for download. Applying a filter would decrease the size of the downloads and perhaps give you an option for managing/transferring smaller chunks of the data to the desired destination.

 

 

Best,

Jenn

 

________________________________________

Jennifer Elam, Ph.D.
Scientific Outreach, Human Connectome Project
Washington University School of Medicine
el...@wustl.edu
www.humanconnectome.org

 

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[Brendan Wood]

Hi Jenn,

Thank you for the information. I will try the mounting strategy as I think this will work.

Thank you again for your help.

[Harms, Michael]

 

It will "work" but of course the efficiency of the process will depend on the bandwidth between the local machine and the ultimate destination (that the mount points to).

 

-- 

Michael Harms, Ph.D.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Professor of Psychiatry

Washington University School of Medicine

Department of Psychiatry, Box 8134

660 South Euclid Ave.                        Tel: 314-747-6173

St. Louis, MO  63110                          Email: mha...@wustl.edu

 

From: Brendan Wood <brendan...@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "hcp-...@humanconnectome.org" <hcp-...@humanconnectome.org>
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 12:32 PM
To: HCP-Users <hcp-...@humanconnectome.org>
Cc: "Elam, Jennifer" <el...@wustl.edu>
Subject: Re: [hcp-users] Downloading fMRI Data

 

Hi Jenn,

 

Thank you for the information. I will try the mounting strategy as I think this will work.

 

Thank you again for your help.

 

On Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 12:19:23 PM UTC-4 el...@wustl.edu wrote:

Hi Brendan,

We are working on a plan for implementing one or more alternatives to the Aspera GUI, but they are not yet in place. The HCP does not support command line access via Aspera due the version of Aspera we have.  For now, we recommend mounting some part of your cluster filesystem with adequate space on a machine where you can install Aspera Connect and open a browser with the Aspera Connect plugin. 

 

For Linux OSs we recommend using Chrome or Chromium plugins. One group reported Debian 11 with Chrome works, but they did not have success with Debian 12 or 13. This incompatibility might be due to the fact that our Aspera server has been in use for ~12 years and is aging. We should be able to get something else in place in the coming months, but we didn't want to hold up data releases when Aspera is still working for most users. 

 

Also, in the BALSA UI, you can filter for a subset of subjects using the Save Custom Subject Group button that will apply to both the non-imaging and imaging data packages that you can queue for download. Applying a filter would decrease the size of the downloads and perhaps give you an option for managing/transferring smaller chunks of the data to the desired destination.

 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/humanconnectome.org/d/msgid/hcp-users/9fba9a68-6d62-464f-8c82-eaaba3635889n%40humanconnectome.org.