Abstract: Disclosed are a method and a device for downloading a file. The method includes: when receiving a download request of a file, acquiring attribute information about the file, and learning information about the length of the file according to the attribute information about the file; when the length of the file goes beyond a preset value, segmenting the download request into at least two fragments of download requests; sending the at least two fragments of download requests to at least two data nodes to request to download corresponding fragments, and obtaining the at least two fragments; and according to the at least two fragments obtained by download, obtaining the file. By segmenting the download request into a plurality of fragments of requests, the present invention achieves the parallel download of the plurality of fragments of requests, thereby greatly improving the download efficiency of a file.