The method ReservedSpace::align_reserved_region() does not work on Windows. It tries to free parts of the previously allocated memory by doing two calls to os::release_memory(). However, on Windows os::release_memory() is implemented as:

 VirtualFree(addr, 0, MEM_RELEASE)

which will always free up all the allocated memory:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/windows/desktop/aa366892%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

"The function frees the entire region that is reserved in the initial allocation call to VirtualAlloc."

This means that if ReservedSpace::align_reserved_region() is executed on Windows and we try to trim the beginning of the memory that we had allocated we will free all of the allocated memory. Subsequent calls to os::commit_memory() which will end up as:

VirtualAlloc(addr, bytes, MEM_COMMIT, PAGE_READWRITE)

will fail with 487, ERROR_INVALID_ADDRESS - Attempt to access invalid address.