What is the difference between memory and your harddrive?

Answer 1

If by "memory" you actually meant "RAM", the main difference between RAM and the hard-drive is the access time and the amount of data accessed at one time:

• modern RAM can be accessed in nanoseconds, the access time is constant, and individual bytes or words can be accessed independantly
• a hard-drive typically takes milliseconds to access, the access time varies depending on where the data to be accessed is relative to the last data accessed, and entire blocks of hundreds or thousands of bytes called sectors or clusters must be accessed at the same time

In summary RAM is usually about a million times faster than a hard-drive to access and can access completely randomly any byte or word in it, while a hard-drive accesses only large blocks of bytes.

Note: there are other differences relating to physical construction, power consumption, volatility, etc.

Answer 2

Well, the Hard Drive (HDD) is a form of memory called "storage memory." On the hard drive, there is a magnetic disk which spins around and when you "save" something on your computer, a small arm inside the device finds an appropriate space on the disk and "writes" a digital code that represents the information. Later when you "open" the document, the computer finds the place on the hard drive where that information was stored and "reads" it. The other kind of memory you might be thinking of is Random Access Memory (RAM). This kind of memory is different. It is used to "hold" information you are working with while the computer is on and it's temporary- as soon as you take away power from the RAM then it "forgets" whatever it was doing. If you open up a word processor and begin typing, if you turn the computer off before you save then the document is lost because RAM was being used to run the program. While the power was on, you could leave the computer with the words on the screen and come back in a day and as long as the computer never lost power, you words would still be there. It's only once you click "save" and you send the information into storage memory (written onto the hard drive) that it is saved no matter whether the computer is on or off.

Answer 3

The hard drive IS memory, since it stores data. The difference is that there are different types of memory; and the hard drive is just one type."Memory" may refer to:

* ANY type of technology used to store information.

* Also, specifically to RAM.