Partial Files and Browsers

Internet browsers are frequently used to download files from the internet. There are many types of files which browser can download: from small files with documents to very large files with operating system images. But mechanism which browser uses to download files is the same for all files.

Large files can take considerable time to download. Due to the size of the file browser cannot store it in memory. That’s why temporary file is created where browser stores content of the file downloaded so far. If the size of download is known when download is started then partial download file is created with the size of the downloaded file. Otherwise partial download file will grow as download proceeds. The way partial file is named depends on which browser is used. For example in Google Chrome partial download file will have the same name as the file being downloaded from the internet with .CRDOWNLOAD extension at the end of it. Firefox will do the same but with .PART file extension at the end. Once download is complete .CRDOWNLOAD or .PART extension will be removed from the file name and the file will be ready to use.

Most of the partial downloads could be resumed by the browser which started the download. To do it you need to navigate to browser downloads section and click on “Resume” or “Resume download” button.

You can also redownload partially download file from the internet. To do this you either need to find an original download URL you received or find a file which failed to download completely in your browser download section and restart download from there.

Below are most commonly used browser partial download file extensions: