What's the difference between disk storage and memory?

Answer 1

When you recall that you need to get your friend a birthday gift, the thought resides in your memory. When you write a note to get them a gift, you store the reminder on paper (storage).

Similarly, your computer loads programs from disk (storage) and runs them in memory. Data is stored on disk, but manipulated in memory.

Answer 2

Disk storage refers to very large memory locations where your files, data etc are kept. It is also commonly known as Hard Disk. Data dumped on the disk stays there even after the compute is shut down (as long as you dont go and delete it)

Memory refers to a much smaller memory area which is frequently referred to by the processor to do its normal activities. It is commonly known as RAM and can be considered to be like a scratch pad for the computer. Data here is only available while the computer is running and lost once your shut it down.

Hard disks are slower to read/write from the computers point of view. Memory is optimized for high speeds, but cant be very big.
Hard disks are often in the range of 100 GBs (on a PC, much more on bigger computers). Memory is often around 1GB or less

Hope this helps

Answer 3

I would have to disagree with the original poster. Disk storage (hard drive) and memory (RAM) are both considered hardware. The difference is that hard drives are non-volatile memory, which means the information will not disappear when the power is turned off. RAM is volatile, which means any information stored will disappear when the power is turned off.

RAM is faster than hard drives, but hard drives are cheaper per GB basis. Costs $200 for 2GB RAM, where it costs $250 for $500.

You save programs, files, photos and music on a hard drive. Running programs are stored in memory temporarily.

Answer 4

It's sort of like long term memory and short term memory in humans. Disk storage is used to store data permanently. Those pictures from your camera, music, a video: you want to be able to see them months from now.

Disk storage is a bit slow though. It's unsuitable for short term memory because the computer needs to keep things and retrieve things from memory fast. When programs run, they temporarily need a bit of space to keep data. It's not permanent, but it has to be fast. That's where memory comes in. It can't store things permanently, but it's extremely fast.

In case you're wondering, yes, disk storage can be used as a substitute for memory. But expect the computer to run extremely slow.

Answer 5

Disk storage is where you save your working stuff. Basically it is the capacity of the hard drive. Memory is the ram where you work on when you switch on the computer. the stuff saved on the memory is deleted when you switch off the computer but the disk saves what you have saved. The more ram you have the better the performance of the computer.

Answer 6

Disk storage is like a place where you can save your files!
Memory is a random access memory for your hardware to open a file or anything else

Answer 7

interior your computing gadget there are 3 sorts of memory all measured in MB and GB a million. RAM 2. Cache 3. troublesome force RAM (Raddom get entry to memory) is on chips or Sticks you may set up into slots on the mummy board. CACHE - is memory on the processor chip itself. And the troublesome force is your disk storage. Then there is exterior storage contraptions: troublesome drives, USB sticks, floopy disks, CD/DVD, tape.... bill

Answer 8

Disk is software and memory is in your hardware.