Memory Question

[darmitage1215]

what is the difference between memory for Ram and hard drive memory! just wondering if I could get some help on this!

hope I posted in the right area and if not I'm sorry guys!

[123456]

Hard drives store your computer's data, like documents, music, etc. Windows and Mac and other operating systems can be installed on hard drives. RAM-Random Access Memory. I can't really describe it well, so here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM

Nowadays, computers generally have abour 100GB-500GB hard drives and 1-2GB of RAM

[FrankSG]

This might be a good analogy: The size of your hard drive could be compared to the number and size of the drawers that you have on your desk. The more drawers you have and the bigger the drawers, the more files you can store in them. Ram can be like the top of your desk. The bigger the desk top you have, the more files you can take from the drawers, put on top of the desk, open the files and work on them.

[Paul Komski]

Hard drive data is static; it stays there when the pc is powered down but is relatatively slow to access.

RAM data is volatile; it disppears as soon as the PC is powered down but is very fast to access.

The OS likes to operate on fast memory so at start up everything needed by the system is loaded first from the BIOS ROM settings and then from the hard drive (or floppy or live CD etc) and into what is initially completely empty RAM.

[Sylvander]

The PC uses a hierarchy of different types of the very fastest memory very near the CPU, through RAM to the relatively slow HDD storage.

The more often some data is used, the higher up the hierarchy it gets stored, so it can be fetched/read extremely rapidly [if being accessed frequently]...

The less often it gets used the lower down the hierarchy it gets stored. [HDD swap-file etc]

If it begins to be accessed more frequently it goes back up the hierarchy once again.
Its frequency of access would determine where in the hierarchy it should be held.
It's dynamic.