Does replacing ram delete files on laptop?

Does Replacing RAM Delete Anything On Your Laptop?

Replacing your computer's RAM does not erase any of your personal files, documents, photos, or programs that you had installed. The RAM of your computer is a volatile memory, or rather temporary storage of data as long as your computer is on. Consider it to be a working area. Your hard drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) is a non-volatile storage device holding all of your permanent files. Once you close your computer to get you new RAM, the temporary files are deleted, but your permanent files on your storage disk come out unaltered and intact.

The Difference Between RAM and Storage

The key to understanding why your files are safe is to first have a clear understanding of the core distinction between RAM (Random Access Memory) and your storage drive (HDD or SSD). Suppose you are a writer sitting at a table.

RAM is your desk (or workbench). It is the place where you work to complete your ongoing projects. You unfold your papers, open up your books, and get your pens in hand. You can quickly and simply find anything you want at the moment. But at the end of the day when you are closing up, you put everything back. Your desk is cleared. RAM works exactly like this. It contains the information about the applications and files currently in use, for example, your web browser, your document, or your game. That information can be accessed at an extremely fast rate by the processor in your computer. However, when the electricity goes off, the table is wiped off and all that was on it disappears.

Your filing cabinet is your storage drive (HDD/SSD). Here you keep most of your documents, books, and projects under long-term safe custody. You can't get things out of the filing cabinet as quickly as you can out of your desk, but you are sure they will be there tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Your operating system (Windows or macOS), all the software that you have installed, your photos, music, and documents are all stored in this filing cabinet. It is a non-volatile form of storage that can hold all the information even when the computer is switched off.

Thus, by replacing your RAM you are merely replacing your temporary workbench with a new, possibly bigger or faster one. You are not touching the filing cabinet where all your valuable and long-term information is locked up.

What Really Changes When RAM Is Replaced?

Your permanent files are absolutely safe, but one form of information is lost when you upgrade your RAM: unsaved work. Since RAM stores the present condition of your running programs, any work you have done that has not been saved directly to your hard disk will be lost when the machine is turned off.

As an example, you can have a Word document open and have typed a number of paragraphs without clicking the "Save" button. That new text is only in the RAM. If you shut off the computer to install the new RAM modules, those paragraphs will be missing. The old, already saved version of the document will still be there in your hard drive, whereas the new, unsaved changes will be lost forever. That is why saving all your work and closing all your running programs before you shut down your computer is absolutely essential to carry out any hardware upgrade, such as changing your RAM.

One other small item that can be lost or overwritten is a particular setting in your computer's BIOS/UEFI known as a memory profile (such as XMP or EXPO). These profiles are environments where your RAM is able to run at faster speeds, as advertised. The BIOS can readjust the default, lesser speed settings when you install new RAM to prevent harm. This is not the loss of data; you will just have to re-enter the BIOS and turn the profile back on to get your new RAM performing to its full potential.

Commonly Asked Questions Regarding Computer RAM

RAM is a component that may puzzle a lot of individuals. To make better decisions related to upgrading, we can deconstruct some of the most frequently asked questions.

What Is RAM? What Is Its Purpose?

RAM is your computer's short-term memory. Its main duty is to temporarily hold information that a computer is actively accessing so that the Central Processing Unit (CPU) can access it in near real time. Once you open a program, or access a file, or even visit a website, the data you need is read out of your slower long-term storage (SSD or HDD) into the super-fast RAM. This enables multitasking and fast performance.

The larger the amount of RAM, the more applications and files you can have running at a time without your computer slowing down. When your RAM runs out, your system must then begin swapping data back and forth with the far slower storage drive, creating a serious bottleneck and making your computer feel slow and sluggish. Consider it a larger workbench: the person will be able to do more things simultaneously without complicating the workspace and making it slow.

So How Much RAM Do I Require?

How much RAM you require is completely dependent on how you are using your computer. It depends on the situation and there is no universal solution, but the following is more or less of a guideline:

8 GB: This is the current minimum. The 8 GB storage is usually enough when it comes to casual users who do little more than go online, send email messages, watch online videos, and use office software such as Microsoft Word or Excel. It gives a hassle-free experience in day-to-day activities.

16 GB: This is the one that most people, including mainstream gamers, students, and multitaskers, have as their sweet spot. The 16 GB allows you to open many browser tabs, listen to music, use Office applications, and most current video games without experiencing any performance problems caused by memory limitations.

32 GB: This is advised when an individual is a serious gamer, content creator, programmer, and works with big files. But when you are editing 4K video, working with high-resolution photos, running virtual machines, or streaming your gameplay, 32 GB will make sure your system does not get sluggish due to a heavy load.

64 GB or more: This is the high-end workstation and enthusiast RAM. Professionals who deal with very complex 3D modeling, heavy analysis of data, creating cinematic videos, or other activities that require high specialization and consume large amounts of memory will need it.

Is It Possible to Combine Brand or Speed of RAM?

Technically you can often, but it is strongly discouraged. With RAM modules of varying speeds installed, the system will all run at the speed of the slowest stick installed. Thus, when you combine a faster stick with a slower stick, 3600MHz and 2400MHz, the slower module will still be used, and you will not be able to enjoy the speed of the faster one.

It may even be worse to mix brands. Although this can be effective, it may cause the system to become unstable, crash randomly (the nightmare "Blue Screen of Death"), and result in other unexpected problems. To achieve the most consistent and predictable performance, a matched set of RAM modules of the same manufacturer, speed, timings, and capacity is always a good choice.

What Is the Difference Between DDR4 and DDR5?

DDR4 and DDR5 are the two versions of RAM. The "DDR" is an abbreviation of Double Data Rate. The important point here is that DDR5 is the more modern, fast, and efficient standard and DDR4 is the older and more established one.

Speed: DDR5 has much higher starting speeds as well as a much higher potential top speed compared to DDR4.


Capacity: DDR5 can use large individual RAM sticks, making possible very large total memory capacities in a system.


Power Efficiency: DDR5 is a little more power-efficient than DDR4 because it is operated at a lower voltage.

The first thing to be aware of is that they cannot be used together. Motherboards are built to either take a DDR4 or a DDR5, and not both. To make this physically impossible, the notches on the sticks are located differently. The type of motherboard you have supports what kind of RAM you may purchase.

Where Do I Find Out the Amount of RAM?

You can easily check what you have installed in RAM.

On Windows 10/11: Right-click the start menu and choose System. On the appearing window, the available RAM is found in the section of device specifications. Alternatively, you can use the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys to open the Task Manager, and then switch to the 'Performance' tab, after which you should choose the 'Memory'. This will display you the total amount of RAM and the amount of RAM in use.

On macOS: Click the Apple logo in the far-left corner of the screen, and choose About This Mac. The amount of memory installed and its type will be displayed on the 'Overview' tab.

Will an Upgrade to More RAM Help My Computer Become Faster?

It is a typical question that has a subtle answer. The addition of extra RAM may increase the perceived speed of your computer, but only to a certain degree. Adding more RAM will offer a significant performance improvement, though, in case your computer is routinely slowing down due to a shortage of memory (you can access the Task Manager and see how much memory is being used). It frees up more memory on your desktop to perform other more important duties without using the slow hard disk drive.

But once you have the required RAM to run the activities you are doing, no matter how much you add to it, you will not change anything. Or to take an example, when you have 16 GB of RAM, but you never use more than 10 GB in most cases, increasing to 32 GB is not going to cause your web browser to load pages any faster or your game to achieve higher frame rates. Other factors, like your CPU, your graphics card, or the speed of your storage drive, will probably be limiting your performance in this situation. RAM is simply a fix to a RAM bottleneck.