I'm wondering what's the difference between hard disk memory and the random access memory. Â Some friends were telling me not to call hard disk space as memory. How do they differ since based on names, both are called memory? I'm confused.
Random access memory (RAM) is the memory your computer uses to run programs. It is the one that is referred to as the "memory" although by meaning hard disk space can also be called memory but this is computer terminology. It is used to store data temporarily while hard disk is used to store data for a long time.
To better understand look at this example. You have a book and a blackboard. Let the book be hard disk and the blackboard be RAM . To show the pupils certain text in the book you write that on the blackboard. It would be very time consuming to show the book to all the pupils. Thats the role played by RAM and hard disk.
Hi,
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While both computer components refer to a type of memory/storage device, what has been normally referred to as memory by most people is the random access memory or RAM while the hard drive has been known as storage.
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Random Access Memory stores data that's needed for applications to run and the data is removed or erased when power has been taken off the system.
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The hard drive on the other hand can store the information that the random access memory can store (though this would result to slower system performance; this is referred to as the page file) as well as all other data you might want to keep like your documents, music, movies and others. The hard drive can keep the information even after power has been completely turned off.
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Thank you. Hope it helps.
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Clair june
