Memory help!

So I went to Utilities and opened up Activity Monitor, it says I have about 900mb of free memory, but the Macintosh HD says I have over 400GB left. Whats the difference, and how do I delete lots of stuff to free more memory without deleting stuff I want to keep?

Welcome to M-F!

The difference:
RAM is what your computer uses to store temporary data that it only needs for a short time or only once. This space is mostly used by applications to store temporary data. You cannot delete anything to clear out this, it will clear itself on a restart/or when you quit the application that is using that space.

HD Space (Macintosh HD) is the physical space left on you Hard-drive for your applications, movies, pictures, .etc. This space is for everything that you put into the computer.
Since you have 400GB free, you have nothing to worry about as that is a lot of space to fill up with pictures/documents/ .etc


2 Links for more info, the first few paragraphs of each article is whats interesting to you.

RAM.
How and Why to Upgrade Your Mac’s RAM | Mac.AppStorm

Hard-drives.
How and Why to Upgrade Your Mac’s Hard Drive | Mac.AppStorm

It's been over 30 years since the first personal computers were sold...and users still do not know the difference between ram & hard drive storage space!!!

- Nick

p.s. "McYukon"...you beat me to the explanation!

Nick, now you see the daily frustrations I go through in the realm of PC sales. I'm now entering repair, so I have to actually tell people about what all of the parts of their computer do so that they don't f'them up.

Can we please sticky this so we don't have to deal with more post like this every week? >_<"

DarkestRitual said:

Nick, now you see the daily frustrations I go through in the realm of PC sales. I'm now entering repair, so I have to actually tell people about what all of the parts of their computer do so that they don't f'them up.

Click to expand...

Oh boy...I don't even want to think about what you go thru on a daily basis at Best Buy. I probably would have put a gun to my head long ago.

It's not just the frustration of explaining the most basic of computer concepts to each & every customer (which many still don't understand after explaining)...but then it's also the sales side of things where you spend 30-45 minutes with a customer...and then they walk away without purchasing anything...never to be seen again!!!

Sales is tough...computer sales maybe even tougher! Hang in there dude...find your "Happy Place"!

- Nick

CrimsonRequiem said:

Can we please sticky this so we don't have to deal with more post like this every week? >_<"

Click to expand...

Agreed