Patent ID: 7240177

Claim:
A method, in a data processing system, for removing a portion of physical memory from being allocated to an operating system, comprising: reducing an original file cache size associated with the physical memory to thereby generate a reduced file cache size; performing a memory removal operation on the portion of physical memory based on the reduced file cache size to form a reduced physical memory, wherein the memory removal operation results in a removal of an allocation of the portion of physical memory to an operating system, and wherein the memory removal operation favors paging-out file pages stored in the physical memory to reduce a number of bytes of the physical memory that store file pages to be equal to or lower than the reduced file cache size; and increasing the reduced file cache size to a larger file cache size after completion of the memory removal operation, wherein the reduced file cache size is increased by an amount such that the larger file cache size is the same relative percentage of the reduced physical memory as the original file cache size is of the physical memory.