Exturnal hard drive, exactly how do they work.?

I'm thinking of getting one. I have an older desk top with a 10 gig hard drive that I use for my little side jobs (auto body) that I do at home. I surf the web to get ideas from the pro's on custom work. I also download ideas and keep them in folders for reference. I'm getting a window informing me that I have low virtual memory. Will a exturnal hard drive help? Please educate me. My Wife won't let me upgrade, we have a brand new computer in the house.

Answers:
You are talking about 2 different kinds of memory: Storage and Ram

Storage (like an external hard drive) stores your files so that you can save, open, delete, etc them on your personal machine

Ram Memory is a temporary storage that is contantly allowing programs to run. The more RAM you have the faster your computer will load big/multiple programs. Audio/Video programs use a lot of RAM.

RAM comes in 2 ways, real and virtual.

Real Ram is in a stick that is attached internally to your computer and is the real meat and bones of the RAM

Virtual memory is like a backup that comes into play when you temporarily run out of real RAM (like when playing a game, watching videos, etc). It uses a certain section of your hard drive to 'pretend' it is real RAM.

Good news is that you can increase your Virtual RAM for FREE!!

-Right Click My Computer
-Click Properties
-Click the Advanced Tab
-Click Settings under Performance
-Click Advanced Tab
-Under Virtual Memory Click Change
-At the bottom it displays the Recommended Page File Size
-Type this into the Initial Size
-Type 1.5 to 2 times that amount in the Maximum Size
-OK all windows
first of all bring a external case for that hard drive and connect it. the case should be of usb oriented. plug your hard disk into that case and put the power cable , and connect it to the usb of mother board and hard disk . operating system win2000 with service pack 4 and xp with sp 2
not really ... an external will give u alot more storage room but if ur using virtual memory it points to u needing more ram also ..

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