I was at work and some computers that were nearly maxed on storage were basically unusable. This doesn’t make sense because my understanding was RAM was the storage the computer uses to run tasks and the storage was for things downloaded
My guess would be that the storage is used for ‘long term’ RAM, something that will be needed for a while anyways but idk. Outside of that I can’t really think of anything else
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You’re right about how RAM vs disc storage is used – but there’s more to it.
First off, the computer only has a certain amount of RAM available to use. While newer computers have a lot more than earlier versions, newer computers are also better at juggling multiple tasks. Each of those juggled tasks needs memory for their operations.
Depending on the task being done, the computers master controller in charge of overseeing all those other parallel tasks may need to free up some space in RAM. When it does this, it needs to store the current state of the RAM for whatever process it’s taking it from.
So think of it like this: RAM is the space on your desk where you can put your papers in order to work. The disc is the filing cabinet beside your desk, where your papers are stored when you’re not using them.
In order to do more work, you need more desk space. You neatly organize some papers on your desk not currently needed, open the file cabinet, find the right place for them by referring to a master list of “where things go”, put the files away, then you look up the files you need now, pull them out, and put them on your desk.
If your desk is really full it’s not great but if your FILING cabinet is really full – and worse if your filing cabinet is really full and a disorganized mess – putting things away and pulling new things out takes longer. Full enough and you can spend more time moving papers around than you do working on them.
More space helps (both more RAM *and* more disc space to an extent in each case) – so does keeping your drive neat and well organized – so clean up your trash, defrag your hard drives, and also reboot periodically (daily) to ensure the desk isn’t loaded up with stuff you don’t actually need but is kinda stuck hanging around anyway.
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