Try these steps too. http://www.linuxinsight.com/proc_sys...op_caches.html Writing to this will cause the kernel to drop clean caches, dentries and inodes from memory, causing that memory to become free. To free pagecache: * echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches To free dentries and inodes: * echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches To free pagecache, dentries and inodes: * echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches As this is a non-destructive operation, and dirty objects are not freeable, the user should run "sync" first in order to make sure all cached objects are freed.