RAM (aka Memory) VS Hard Drive

 

Ram is temporary.  It holds the data while your are working on it, looking at it or have something open.  Once you save it, it goes to your hard drive and lives there forever until you delete it.  Ram only holds the information until you shut down the computer and then it is wiped clean.  Surfing the internet requires RAM because you flip through numerous pages of stuff that you might look at for a minute or two before you go to another internet site.  You do not want everything you look at on the internet to be permanently saved so the computer uses RAM to hold the information until you are finished with it.  Think of Ram as an etch a sketch.  It will hold your writing for a little while until you jostle it or shake it (shut down your pc or close your internet connection)….It is never permanent.

 

Hard Drive is like paper and Pencil.  Writing on Paper and writing to your hard drive have much the same effect. (saving something to your computer or installing a new game or program is like writing something down in a notebook), it stays there forever until you deliberately erase it (AKA delete it).  You can shake the paper all day long but the writing will remain as opposed to shaking the etch a sketch (RAM)

 

Both Ram and Hard Drives come in different sizes.  The more RAM you have, the more you can have open and the quicker you can surf through internet sites.  The bigger your Hard Drive, the more programs (Word, Adobe, Games etc) you can install and the more documents, pictures and music you can save.

 

RAM = Etch a Sketch (save writing for a little while)

Hard Drive = Notebook (save writing forever if you like)

 

**** Please NOTE:   These are two distinctly different Parts inside your PC.  I hear people refer to their computer as their Hard Drive or their CPU but the Hard Drive and CPU are just parts inside the Computer.  This is equivalent to calling your car an engine or a gas tank. Although the gas tank and the engine are critical parts of the car…they are not cars!