Memory contains information only as long as there is a constant supply of electricity to the computer. Computer memory information access is very fast compared with disk storage. In order to function, the computer must have access to some sort of disk storage to find the operating system. Once the operating system is found, it is read from the disk and written into computer memory. From there, the system decides what it needs to read and store between disk storage and memory.
Memory is measured in bytes .
A byte is roughly equivalent to a single alphabetic character, numeral or symbol, including a space. One thousand bytes is referred to as a kilo-byte or K . One million bytes, or 1000K is referred to as a mega-byte or meg . Hard drive capacities are generally something like 40 meg or 80 meg or larger. Floppy disks usually have the capacity of 800K or 1.4 Meg.