Step 1: Download the most recent Cirrus Logic drivers from the Cirrus Logic page. The CS4207 driver is actually more appropriately named "CS42**" driver.
--> go to this page: Here
--> click the "Resources" tab
--> in the "Resources" tab, under the "Tools & Software" heading, select the appropriate driver ZIP file for your particular configuration. Since I am operating in Windows 7 64 bit, I chose the "CS4207 Windows Vista (32/64-bit) and Windows 7 (32/64-bit) Driver, 8/2010, v6.6001.1.26 : 100 KB"
--> download the file to your desktop
--> create a folder on your desktop called CS4207 Drivers (the name doesn't actually matter)
--> move the downloaded ZIP file to this new folder
--> expand the ZIP file within this new folder
Step 2. Go to Control Panel, Device Manager.
Step 3. In Device Manager, open up the "Sound, vide and game controllers" sub menu.
Step 4. If you're like me, you had 4 NVIDIA High Definition Audio entries, and one Cirrus or Intel entry. Click on the Cirrus or Intel entry for the Sound controller. Uninstall the driver and, if it gives you the option to delete the driver files used, do so.
Step 5: Go back to Device Manager, and select "Scan for hardware changes" from the right click dropdown menu.
Step 6. Let your system automatically install whatever driver it wants.
Step 7. Select that new driver entry in Device Manager; right click the entry to update the driver; choose the Browse option, then the Let Me Pick option; and then select the new folder on your desktop as the driver location.
Free memory has nothing in it. Inactive memory caches recently used information just in case the system might use it again. This is especially beneficial for file storage.
The system only needs a tiny amount of free memory so the program asks for memory to be allocated it doesn't have to page some other active memory out to disk and cause that program to stall momentarily while the virtual memory system is doing housekeeping. The overhead for the system to release inactive memory is almost immeasurably short so worrying about a large amount of that memory is generally not worth your brainpower to even think about it.
In summary:
- Inactive memory: this is always good, it makes the system fast.
- Free memory: any more than 200 MB is a waste, so the system will keep adding files and/or code to inactive memory until free memory hits a low-water benchmark based on a few factors.
What you describe seems perfectly normal for a system that has been recently booted and doesn't seem to me to be anything of concern. VMware fusion or Parallels clearly has need to access a lot of files when running Windows 7 and they are likely to be the reason for your large amount of inactive memory.
If, however, you wish to diagnose what is using memory, the sysdiagnose program will run several memory allocation utilities and saves the results to a directory.
Best Answer
If you run Parallels off a disk image, you can expand that partition to as much disk space as you have available. All it requires is shutting down the VM. As far as I know you can't shrink a disk image.
How much RAM you allocate can be changed using Parallels. You simply shut down the VM, change the setting in Parallels and restart. This doesn't change whether you're using a disk image or a Boot Camp partition, but it's worth pointing out that if you boot from the Boot Camp partition (not in Parallels), that's running Windows directly and it will use all the RAM available to the system, like any other laptop.
How you allocate disk space and RAM depends on what you're doing with your VM, and what you expect to be doing with OS X while that VM is running. Think of it as configuring a whole new computer - you need a quantity of hard drive space and RAM sufficient for the tasks at hand. The easy part is that you can (mostly) change your mind later on if you guess wrong with a VM.