Does anyone know what a "dump" is in technological terms?

A memory dump is when a computer records all of its internal memory (RAM and registers) to permanent storage (ROM). This gives a snapshot of everything that is happening in a computer at a single point in time, allowing it to possibly shut down and restart as if nothing has happened.

One use of core dumps is to debug software. It acts sort of like a black box, telling the programmer exactly what was happening when a program crashed.

Another use is for restoring a user session after a device’s battery dies. When my laptop dies, Windows dumps its memory. When the computer is eventually restarted, Windows can resume, and all of the running programs are restarted and it’s as if nothing happened.

As for what a dump file is, I would assume it is where the operating system stores the memory dump.

For some additional sources, you can look up “core dump” on Wikipedia.

Thanks so much @PhiNotPi ! :D
So I’m guessing I shouldn’t delete these files then huh?

I used to work on an IBM 360/50 Mainframe. When we needed to debug software we’d do a core dump or sometimes a data dump. That mean reams of paper all filled with hexadecimal numbers.
We began to use the expression to mean telling every little detail of something – whter it was needed or not.
E.g. : “How was dinner?”
“My dinner was served on Corelle plates with blue trim and the knives were plastic that looked like metal but only weighed about ⅓ as much and were….”
“Stop! I don’t want a data dump. I just want to know if the food was good.or not.”

It’s what we call our local transfer station/ Sat. AM socialization location…but you probably don’t mean that.

Thanks guys :)
I love how such a simple question was an outlet for so much lurve too! I must ask more questions like this in the future :D

It’s also a “dynamic down-load”.