eli5 where do canceled downloaded files go?

Question

If im downloading a large file and accidentally cancel it at 90%, why do I have to “redownload” it all over again? Where did the 90% go

In: 1

Answer 1

So when you delete a file, it doesn’t actually get deleted. The files are still there, but the pointers that say where the files are do get removed and when another file comes along the space where the first file was just gets re-written with the new data. The same thing happens with a cancelled download. The pointers that file either never get added or are deleted. The files are still there, your computer just doesn’t know where they are and they’ll get written over by something else.