Computer Virgin question

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At the risk of sounding stupid, can someone please explain to me the difference in capabilities between: A. External hard drive, B. Flash drives, C. SD cards. (That's assuming they all have the same amount of memory.) And is there any way to add additional memory so I can run more programs on my computer? I have an EeePC (those things the size of two sandwiches) so I don't think there's any way to fit anything inside- it would have to be external.
In English, please!! ! Thanks.

Memory is RAM
Storage medium is the hard drive which is mechanical but faster than SD cards and similar
Hard drives will require an external power source.
Laptops can have the internal hard drive upgraded.

A flash drive is just a portable version of a floppy disk. Not as fast as an actual a hard drive although USB2.0 can operate at 60MBps/400Mbps a Hard drive on average can read/write at about 40MBps

I don't think you're asking the right question. Those types of media you described are for storing non-running software or data files. Adding one of those devices won't help you run more simultaneous programs - but would allow you to install more programs on the computer or store more data.

If you're looking to run more applications simultaneously, you need more RAM. RAM is used by programs to store their code when running and the data those programs are manipulating (documents, pictures, etc). If the computer runs out of RAM, the operating system will swap some contents of RAM to disk to allow more programs to run. This process is slow (the disk is slow) and causes applications to run much slower - especially when switching between them.

So I think you need more RAM. Some computers have additional slots for RAM cards. The cards are quite small - 3" by less than 1" and have several RAM chips on each one. Different computers use different types of RAM - you'll need to find the right one for your machine. You might also want to match manufacturers - I've seen weird issues when mixing and matching "compatible" RAM from different manufacturers.

A. External hard drive - Fast and high capacity, relatively cheap but bulky and usually requires an external power supply from a wall socket.

B. Flash drives - Slower than a hard drive but much more portable can get rather expensive as you increase the capacity.

C. SD cards - slightly slower than a flash drive and a bit cheaper but generally same things apply. It has the added advantage of being easily swapped out and stored (the cards are about the size of your thumb and slightly thicker than a credit card) since the storage media is separate from the reader unit and its USB circuitry.

Think of the hard drives, SD card, thumb drives as filing cabinets. Information is stored in them. This may be programs that are not active currently. Instructions on how to do things.

RAM/memory is like a scratch pad. Pieces of paper that are used to track numbers and do calculations, figure out formulas. You take data(pieces of paper, files) from the filing cabinet(hard drive) and do certain operations with them. One type of data might be the system of a work processor, and another type of data is the contents of the letter you are writing with it.

Now on your computers desktop is all those little icons. These are links to different areas of the hard drive/file cabinet. Almost like atable of contents or an index.

I hope this helps.

Are SD cards only good for photos & video? Can you store music on them?
Explain ''simultaneous programs''. Programs that are stored simultaneously, or that you are actually using at the same time?
Suppose I wanted to have more programs, like a couple more graphics/photo editing programs. I won't be actually using them at the same time as most of the other stuff. Can these be stored on an external hard drive (or a flash drive?) or do they have to go on the hard drive that's inside the computer?

RAM is where everything is loaded into, SD, hard drives, and "flash" drives are just storage mediums. Once loaded it goes at the same speed and will be around in the computer through the SRAM and RAM. So it doesn't really matter

Yes they're for storing files the same as your computers hard drive you can put anything on them you could put on any other drive or folder on your computer.



He means programs that are being used at the same time. A program that isn't being used only takes up space on your hard drive/flash card/SD card/ whatever. Once its started and is running it takes up space in the computers RAM.



Yes they can be stored on an external hard drive or flash drive but the drive has to be plugged in and turned on (if applicable) every time you want to start the program. When the program is not being used though you can unplug it and go about your business.

Thank you! So how would I go about downloading a program to a flash drive rather than my comp.'s hard drive?

You just run the installer normally as you would as if you were installing it to your main hard drive you just select "advanced mode" if applicable and when it asks where to install the program you specify your removable media drive. It usually has a low letter like E or F it depends on how many drives and partitions are in your computer if you look in "My Computer" at the list of drives the flash drive/SD card will be called "removable media" with a letter specification next to it. External hard drives are sometimes harder to determine since its listed as a hard drive the same as the internal ones.

Can I move a program (a downloaded one, not one that came installed in the computer) from the comp. to another storage medium, and how? Every time I use the computer it's constantly sending me messages that memory is running short. I've gotten rid of any programs I don't need, I do disc cleanup and defragmenting. Oh yeah- one thing I really don't need is ''Compatibility Pack for Office'', but every time I try to kick it out, a message comes back that it's on a ''network resource that is unavailable''. What the hell is that? Could I have already removed it (or part of it) and it's still listed for some reason but not really there? Or what? I emailed Windows but they never answered.

"network resource that is unavailable"

You get this error message if office was originally installed from a mapped network drive or from a NETBOI shared folder.

Basically its looking for the source files it was originally installed from in order to know which files and settings to remove but the location it has listed for where it was installed from is no longer valid because the actual "disc" was on another computer.

In any case if you get an office CD, run it and select add/remove components then just click through (next, next, next, etc) without making changes it will change the registry setting that tells it where to look for the install disc to be your CD drive.

Alternatively you can manually edit the registry to point to a valid source location but I wouldn't recommend this to a novice.

Also once a program is installed (it doesn't matter if you downloaded the installer or it came preinstalled on the PC) it cant be moved unless you uninstall it through add/remove programs in the control panel and reinstall the program to the new medium (external drive, flash card, whatever).

Wikipedia has some information you might be interested in:

harddrive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harddrive
flash drive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_drive
SD card: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sd_cards

My own comment regarding external harddrives is that they are always slower than the internal ones (at least when it covers USB/Firewire VS internal S-ATA or SCSI).

Fraya- I don't want Office, I just want to get rid of the Compatibility Pack and Add&Remove won't do it. I've dumped all the other programs I possibly can.

You cant get rid of the compatibility pack without completely removing office and you cant remove office without the install files.

It's been some time since I posted this question. I'd like to report that I'm still using the same computer with the same tiny memory, but I have found that most programs can be moved to an SD card and work perfectly well. So I have an 8-gig SD card in the slot that I just leave there. If a program won't work that way or can't be moved they will tell you when you try to move it.