A method and system for allowing both operating system buffers and application program buffers to reside in expanded memory is provided. In a preferred embodiment, a page frame in conventional memory is provided through which pages in expanded memory are accessed. An application program allocates pages in expanded memory and maps pages into the page frame. An operating system also allocates pages in expanded memory. In a preferred embodiment, an application program maps its allocated pages into each page of the page frame. The application then issues a read request to read data from a file storage device into the page frame. Upon completion of the transfer from the file storage device, the operating system determines if there are system buffers that contain a more current version of the data transferred. If so, the operating system maps a system buffer into the highest page of the page frame and then transfers the more current data from the system buffer to the application buffer. If, however, the application buffer to receive the more current data occupies the highest page in the page frame, then the system buffer is mapped into the lowest page of the page frame.