Your O/S only reports 3.4GB, obviously. What does the BIOS say?
Brian Weeden wrote:
What originally sparked this was my need to run Virtual XP from within
Windows 7. I need to run a fairly memory intensive program inside the VM so
I would like to give it 2 GB of RAM. But I still need to be able to run
some other memory intensive apps on Win 7, so allocated 2 GB of my 3.4 GB to
the VM isn't great. Now, if I had 8 GB of RAM then everything is cake. The
ram itself is dirt cheap (relatively speaking) and the OS cost is the same
so the only real issue at hand is making the change.
I don't have any wacky hardware, everything has a 64-bit driver so I will
make the change when I install retail Win 7 next month.
---------------------------
Brian Weeden
Technical Advisor
Secure World Foundation <http://www.secureworldfoundation.org>
Montreal Office
+1 (514) 466-2756 Canada
+1 (202) 683-8534 US
On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Soren <h...@cdnet.dk> wrote:
Hey Brian,
As far as I know, the Windows NT generation is not limited to 3GB RAM, only
to 64GB (32bit O/S limit - do your own math ;). One thing is what the O/S
reports (and what MS wants us to believe), and another thing is what's
actually doable. Nothing new there, unfortunately.
MS have several web pages describing the subject, though in very cloudy
terms. The essence is that WIN only reports up to 'about' +3GB RAM, the rest
is allocated to system (as in e.g. swap) and programmes.
The often overlooked fact is that WIN will only allocate up to 3GB of RAM -
per process, that is. How many processes are running on your system?
I have build and/or setup several WIN NT systems with 4/8GB of RAM w/o any
problems at all. Those are all A/V systems with RAID and all the bells and
whistles, and no complaints so far. Oldest system is almost eight years old.
It's kind of like the old NT-Switch-trick - only a few (like 2) keys in the
registry are changed, and then you've got Server. Bummer.
The limit for WIN NT Pro is 64GB by design (NT5/6/7/8=maybe). Home Edition
is limited to 32GB, for whatever reason. Probably "bragging rights" :)
It's all on the MS web site, though in very cloudy terms. But the
determined individual will find it.
Using +4 GB will include the "/PAE" switch in boot ini. Normally, this is
added automatically by the O/S, and will run smoothly by so.
For an A/V system for professional use, 32GB RAM is not unusual on e.g. WIN
XP Pro.
HTH
-----Original Message-----
From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-
boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Brian Weeden
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 5:29 AM
To: hwg
Subject: [H] More than 4GB of ram and VM question
I'm currently running the beta on Windows 7 32-bit and using 2 sticks
of 2GB
RAM. I have a recent need to occasionally run a VM with another OS in
it.
I would like to assign that OS 2 GB of RAM, but as I only have 3.6 GB
available and need to run some rather memory intensive apps in the
native
Windows OS at the same time, I can't.
I'm looking at adding another 4 GB of RAM. I realize that a 32-bit OS
can't
address more than 4 GB, but my question is whether I can assign the VM
to
the other 4 GB? Or is that not going to work because it's running
inside
the host OS which has the limitation?
And yes, I will probably make the move to 64-bit when Windows 7
actually
comes out.
---------------------------
Brian Weeden
Technical Advisor
Secure World Foundation <http://www.secureworldfoundation.org>
Montreal Office
+1 (514) 466-2756 Canada
+1 (202) 683-8534 US
