Memory vs Hard Disk
If there are two terms in the world of computers that are very confusing as they are related and yet different, they ought to be memory and hard disk of a computer. This article attempts to find out the differences between memory and hard disk by highlighting the features of both.
What do you do when you cannot play a particular game on your computer as the game’s requirement of memory is higher than the present configuration of your computer? You obviously need to upgrade the RAM of your computer, to get it increased, if you dearly want to play the game. And what do you do when your computer reminds you of not enough space in the hard disk of your computer when you are downloading a heavy game or media file? You obviously need to delete some of the files from your hard disk to be able to continue download, isn’t it?
Hard disk is also sometimes called hard drive, which is not right as hard drive is actually a storage device that can hold many GB of information in its spindle of magnetic discs. It tells you the maximum amount of information that you can download or store in your computer. For example, if you have got a 500 GB hard disc installed in your computer and already have 400 GB of files stored inside this disc, you are left with 500-400= 100GB of space left in your computer.
But when one talks about memory of his computer, he is actually referring to random access memory of his computer (RAM), which is used to store actively running programs on your computer. RAM also runs the Operating System, which is the backbone of everything you do on your computer. Suppose Microsoft XP is the OS that loads when you switch on your computer with the help of RAM. And if you choose to work on Microsoft Word, which is a word processor, it too loads on your computer through memory or RAM. You can run many programs that are within the capacity of this memory but the memory gives up when you try to run a program or game that requires a higher RAM.
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In brief: Difference Between Memory and Hard Disk • Memory is more versatile than hard disk • Memory cannot hold on to programs when computer is switched off, while they remain intact if you save them on hard disk before closing computer • All programs take up a part of the memory to run on your computer • Memory helps in running the OS as well as other programs that you run after starting up • Hard disk is like a cabinet where you can store a huge amount of information • If your computer is running slow, by upgrading memory you can notice the change in its speed
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