If you have poor quality internet you might run into trouble when you attempt to download large files. Almost any time I download a file larger than 50 MB the download will get cut off and tell me the connection to the server has failed. If I click retry it tries to download the entire file again.
I thought everyone knew how to resume a broken download but it amazed my friend when he saw me do it so now I’m sharing this with everyone here.
This is an old trick that I’ve been using for a few years. I use Firefox 3.5 though this might work with earlier versions or different browsers. My screenshots are from Ubuntu but I think this tip works in Windows as well.
Notice the ".exe.part" file extension
When a download gets interrupted or fails then you are left with a file.exe and a file.exe.part (or .mp3, .mp3.part — or whatever kind of file you are downloading). If you retry the download it starts over from the beginning. If you go to the folder the file was being saved to and delete the file.exe then rename file.exe.part to file.exe (remove the .part) and resume the download it will start where it was interrupted and you will not have to start from the beginning.
If you don’t see the file extensions then you need to tweak a few settings to display them. Microsoft has decided to ‘help’ you by hiding the file extensions. Here’s how you can see them:
Open a folder such as My Pictures or your download folder, click Tools, Folder Options, click on the View Tab, then just uncheck the box that says “Hide extensions for known file types.” If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7 and can’t see the File, Edit, View, Tools, toolbar then press Alt which should allow you to see it.
I hope this helps someone out there. Feel free to leave a comment if you have a question or have more knowledge about this.
