title: Where is HIVE metadata stored by default?
body: <p>I have created an external table in <code>Hive</code> using following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>create external table hpd_txt(
  WbanNum INT,
  YearMonthDay INT , 
  Time INT, 
  HourlyPrecip INT)
  ROW FORMAT DELIMITED
  FIELDS TERMINATED BY ','
  LINES TERMINATED BY '\n'
  stored as textfile
  location 'hdfs://localhost:9000/user/hive/external';
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Now this table is created in location <code>*/hive/external</code>. </p>
  
  <p><strong>Step-1:</strong> I loaded data in this table using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>load data inpath '/input/hpd.txt' into table hpd_txt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the data is successfully loaded in the specified path ( <code>*/external/hpd_txt</code>)</p>
  
  <p><strong>Step-2:</strong> I delete the table from <code>*/hive/external</code> path using following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>hadoop fs -rmr /user/hive/external/hpd_txt
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Questions:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>why is the table deleted from original path? (<code>*/input/hpd.txt</code> is deleted from hdfs but table is created in <code>*/external</code> path)</li>
  <li>After I delete the table from HDFS as in step 2, and again I use show tables; It still gives the table hpd_txt in the external path. 
  so where is this coming from.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>