1GB .mem file for a VM with only 128mb of RAM?

Discussion in 'Parallels Desktop for Mac' started by unused_user_name, May 11, 2007.

  1. unused_user_name

    unused_user_name Pro

    Messages:
    495
    Anyone know why a Minix VM that only has 128MB of RAM, and a 250mb disk would need a 1gb .mem file?

    This is in the latest version of Parallels, not using bootcamp.

    Any Parallels developers want to shed some light on how I might get rid of this file?
     
  2. n9yty

    n9yty Member

    Messages:
    54
    I've fought with this and comlained loudly, but it is just a fact of life, at least for now.

    I received an answer stating that it was a temporary answer to a memory fragmentation issue. If you have a VM of 256MB and you start and stop it several times, and then you increase the VM memory to 1GB you may run into memory fragmentation that will not allow you to increase the size. So they are allcoating the largest chunk you could assign to the VM as a stopgap.

    This really torques me, because I don't change my VM configs, and if I had to reboot or restart Parallels to flush memory (or use the devtools "purge" command via sudo) I'd rather do that than have to waste 1.5GB of drive space (in my case) just to launch Parallels.

    VMWare Fusion Beta 3 also uses a disk-based cache, but it creates one the size of your allocated memory only.

    I hope this is helpful.

    Steve
     
  3. Andrew @ Parallels

    Andrew @ Parallels Parallels Team

    Messages:
    1,507
    Guys,

    This 1.5G file is a part of Parallels memory manager design in current version. It will be optimized and will take only actual allocated VM memory in upcoming versions.

    I apologize for inconvinience.
     

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