What Is Memory Dump?

A memory dump is like a computer black box—it's the last thing your system does before it crashes, and it'sit's there to help you figure out what happened. A memory dump is created and stored when a system or application crashes. You need to analyze the error later. The contents of this file were a complete record of everything on your computer when it hit: every process running at that time, every file open, and every memory address being used. This information can be beneficial when trying to trace down what caused an application or system failure. For example, if you have an application that crashes every time you want to open it because it'sit's not configured correctly, then looking at the contents of its memory dump will tell you exactly what needs fixing. Memory dump is a technical term that refers to the last state of a program, application or system before it crashed or was terminated. It is displayed on-screen and creates a system log file for viewing and referencing later. After the memory dump, the computer is generally unavailable or inaccessible until it'sit's rebooted. A memory leak can also be caused by a memory dump. A memory dump is a snapshot of all the data in the computer or device's memory at the moment of a crash or power failure. It'sIt's like a picture from just before the photo-bombing relative showed up—you can see what was going on, but now that relative is in the shot. It'sIt's also helpful for developers to diagnose problems by looking at precisely what was happening when things went wrong. It'sIt's sort of like having access to someone's mind, except without all the weird stuff going on there—you know, like thinking about their kids!