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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
May 24, 2009
Q.
How can I tell how much memory I have in the
computer? I would like to know of all the
memory including any video memory.
A.
First, there are several different kinds of
memory used in a computer that are used for
varying purposes. The three that are user
significant are the system RAM, the hard
drive and the video memory. These will be
discussed in this article.
SYSTEM
RAM:
RAM,
'Random Access Memory' is volatile, meaning
that it requires some form of external power
to maintain its data. When the computer is
turned off, all information stored in the
RAM is lost. This memory is usually in the
form of DIMMS, 'Duel Inline Memory ModuleS'
that look like this:
This is the memory that is specified in the
computer specifications in Megabytes MB or
Gigabytes GB. e.g.: 4 GB DDR-2 5400. To see
how much your computer has of this type
memory, hold down the Windows key and press
the Pause key to open the System Properties
dialog. The amount of RAM will be displayed.
In Vista with SP-1, the actual amount of
memory is displayed while in XP only the
amount of 'useable' memory is displayed.
Hard Drive:
The hard drive is where the data is stored.
The operating system and all installed
software is saved here. Since this memory is
magnetic, no external power is required to
maintain it. However, since this is a
mechanical device it is only permanent so
long as the hard drive is functioning. A
typical hard drive looks like this:
When a computer is 'backed-up' it is the
data on the main partition of the hard drive
that is backed up. Fortunately, hard drives
are very durable and reliable, BUT they do
fail so making backups is important.
Click Start, then My Computer to display the
drives in the computer. The hard drive may
be partitioned into several logical drives
that may be displayed as C, D, etc. The C
drive is usually the one that contains your
operating system and applications. If you
right click on it and select Properties, the
used space, free space and total space is
displayed. The sun of all the drives will
total the hard drive size.
Note that this total will always be
less than is specified by the drive and
computer manufacturer. This is mainly
because drive manufacturers sizes are
digital and use powers of 10 while the
computer is binary and uses powers of 2. See
this
previous article
for a detailed explanation if the
difference.
To see the complete information on the hard
drive, Right click on My Computer and select
Manage. Then Double click on Storage, then
Disk Management. The complete information
will be displayed in a list at the top and a
graphical display at the bottom. Your main
hard drive will usually be the drive 0.
Video Memory:
Video memory may be dedicated memory located
on the video card if a separate video card
is used, or shared memory as part of the
overall RAM if the video is integrated in
the motherboard. Checking this video memory
is different in XP, Vista and Windows 7.
In XP, Right click the desktop, select
Properties. Click the Settings tab, then the
Advanced button and then the Adapter tab.
In Vista, Right click the desktop and choose
Personalize. Click Display settings, the
Advanced Settings button and then the
Adapter tab.
In Windows 7, Right click the desktop and
choose Personalize. Click Display, Change
Display Settings, Advanced Settings and then
the Adapter tab.
In any case, a dialog similar to this from
Vista is displayed:
Information on the video card including the
various types of video memory available is
displayed.
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