Computer Terms RAM and Hard Drive Demystified
When it comes to a computer, there is so much basic computer terminology like RAM, megahertz, gigabytes, etc. that people can find confusingthat leave people confused and asking questions like “What is RAM?”, “What’s hard drive?”.
Having a better understanding of some of terms like these can can make the computer less intimidating, and ultimately get more out of them.
A lot of people I talk to seem to be apologetic about their lack of knowledge. It’s too bad people feel that way; they really shouldn’t.
What I tell them is that while they may not know as much as I do about computers, it’s not their fault at all, and they probably know about stuff I don’t know anything about at all. All you need is someone who takes the time to explain things to you in a way that makes sense.
One term many people confuse is memory (also known as RAM), and hard drive storage space.
RAM stands for Random Access Memory (relax — you don’t have to memorize that). It is a temporary working space the computer uses to get work done, which gets emptied when the computer is turned off.
Think of it like a work bench or table. You have a project you’re working on and you do your project on the bench and when you’re done, you clear everything away.
The hard drive is the main place your computer uses to store information. It looks like a rectangular metal box about 3.5″ wide (or 2.5″ on a laptop), which contains a non-removable disk. It is the disk inside the drive which stores everything.
Think of it as a set of shelves where you store the tools or materials for your project — when you want to work on something you choose the things you need from the set of shelves, put them on the bench and work on the project.
This is like when you run a program; the computer loads the program from the hard drive into memory.
So the larger the space, the more you can store — so to put it another way the more programs you can have installed, the more songs or pictures or videos you can save on your computer.
Many people accidentally call their computer (the big box-like thing hooked up to the screen) a hard drive, but this is based on a misunderstanding. Both RAM and the hard drive are parts located inside of the computer, and most people never actually see these parts.
Most people who own a computer that’s only a few years old have far bigger hard drives than they’ll ever use. Few people ever fill them up, unless they are keeping a lot of larger files such as music or pictures, or especially video files. Saving entire films on your computer can really eat up space very quickly.
If someone tells you need more memory, or or you get an error message about not having enough memory, this usually means you don’t have enough RAM. This can slow your computer down drastically.
Think of the bench idea again: if your table is very small, you can’t fit everything you need on it to get your work done, so you’re constantly wasting time moving stuff off and back onto the bench to get your work done, if you can work at all.
Both RAM and hard drive space are measured with the same terms: kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), and gigabytes (GB). This may be one reason people confuse the two terms.
So why is it that you buy a computer one year that has a lot of RAM, and two or three years go by, why do people tell you it doesn’t have enough memory? This is because each year the average size of software, and the amount of memory it requires, gets bigger.
It’s as if the tools you use on your workbench keep growing every year so you eventually have to get a larger bench.
If your computer seems to be running more slowly recently, or you’ve been having odd errors, it could be that you need to add more memory, which doesn’t cost much to do and can add life to your computer. It’s not a cure-all for a slow computer, but it can make a difference.
Remember, basic computer jargon doesn’t have to be hard to understand, just as long as you get an explanation that makes sense!
