Portable storage question Part 2

Not wanting to hijack the thread started by drunken monkey, I have another question concerning adding additional storage to my computer. I currently use a Dell Dimension 4400 that has a 40 GB hard drive. It also has 256 mB of RAM. I currently have 59% free space on my hard drive. In the future I plan to increase the memory of my computeras I use up the current amount. There is so many confusing options out there for the "regular home user" especially now with all these portable hard drive and storage devices that have hit the market in the past year or two.
What I'd like to know is what would be my best option(s) to increase the memory capabilities of my computer. According to Dell, I can go up to 1024 mB RAM. ( Are they referring to the memory I need to buy in pairs and install inside my computer tower?)
Or should I just go with a larger hard drive, and if so how big would be a good number.And what kind of hard drive should I purchase. I'd also like to know if I need to increase my memory first before I increase my hard drive capacity. I read somewhere where the two work together and if you want to increase your hard drive, you need to make sure your RAM is adequate. Any truth to that?
I mainly use the computer for regular household "duties" such as online bill paying, internet surfing, digital picture storage, downloading music, various files of "household" info, In the near future I plan to hook up a Canon Canoscan scanner to scan a lot of family slides, and then scan other items around the house to make a digital copy.
Thanks for any input you can offer.

The theory about having to upgrade them simultaneously is bogus. You will most likely need an IDE hard drive, but check the interface before buying.....size depends on how much you want to spend and how long you plan on keeping that computer until you upgrade to a new one, along with how much more storage you think you will need until then.

I would suggest you upgrade your RAM if your only sitting at 256 MB. Open your case up and see if you have an open slot or not...if so, simply drop a stick in. If you don't have an open memory slot and want to upgrade, you will have to replace one or both sticks with larger quantity chips.

If you have 59% free space on your existing drive, I would suggest it is adequate for your current storage requirements, and to leave it alone until you get down to 10-20% free space.

RAM is totally independant of your hard disk capacity, and 256mb is on the low side. I would suggest purchasing an additional 512mb chip - I would guess that your motherboard only supports two chips, and this will make the most of your existing RAM.

RAM is one of the easiest components to upgrade yourself, I suggest pulling your current chip out, take it to your local computer store and get them to match it to an additional 512mb chip, then put both chips back in your PC giving you a total of 768mb RAM.