Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Memory configuring
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-23
2001-09-11
Nguyen, Hiep T. (Department: 2187)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Memory configuring
C711S162000, C707S793000, C714S006130
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289426
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to intelligent backup systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for intelligently backing up selected data from a host computer's main storage drive to prevent loss of data or user productivity.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, personal computers have become an integral necessity in both the work and home environment. For many people, personal computers have become their main communication system, which can be used for sending and receiving electronic mail (i.e., e-mail), transferring files over a local area network (LAN), and communicating over the world wide web via the Internet. Because people have placed such a high level of dependence on their personal computers, when a failure (i.e., crash) to either a hardware or software component occurs, the user will generally suffer greatly in terms of productivity loss.
Many times, failures to either hardware or software components can lead to the complete loss of personal data, which often cannot be recovered using standard data recovery tools. In efforts to remedy the severity of such data loss, many people perform routine backups of their entire hard drives or files. In this manner, if an unrecoverable failure were to occur, then the user would lose only the data that was created between the last backup operation and the unrecoverable failure.
Unfortunately, relying on periodic backups of a computer's storage drives (i.e., hard drives) does not eliminate the loss in productivity suffered while the failure is being attended to, and the need to reconstruct all of the lost data that was created between the last backup and the failure. To further complicate the reconstruction process, most of today's computer software products have to be installed using complex installation software that is designed to place each component of the software product in the correct system folder location, registry file, startup file, etc., to preserve proper functionality with the computer's operating system. As a result, even though the entire contents of a backup can be retrieved from the backup media, the restoring of a subsequently repaired storage drive will require a substantial amount of reconstruction.
Although the restoration of failed storage devices can sometimes be a trivial process when only a minor number of programs are re-installed onto the failed computer system, most of today's computer systems use a wide number of programs, each requiring custom installation for proper operation. Furthermore, because most computer users purchase, update, and modify computer programs over the Internet, it is often impossible to reconstruct the original state of all programs, patches, or executables that are loaded onto a computer without keeping detailed logs of where each component was acquired. As a result, when attempts to reconstruct a user's computer system are made, many of the originally installed software programs or components may not be installed because they are no longer available or supported by the original supplier.
Notwithstanding that most failures that are a result of a hardware malfunction or a software problem can be fixed, either by complete replacement or by performing repairs, users still experience data losses that produce harsh penalties in productivity or require significant down time. That is, even if users systematically backup their system regularly, some amount of data will be lost between the time of the last backup and the subsequent restoration. In certain circumstances, even if only a small amount of data is lost, that small amount may translate into many hours of reconstruction time. Furthermore, if the lost data was a time sensitive piece of data, then reconstruction over many hours or days may not be acceptable.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for an intelligent backup system and method for implementing the system to protect data of a computer's storage drive in case a system failure occurs. There is also a need for a system and a method for implementing the system that will enable a user to continue working from the intelligently backed-up data after a system failure occurs, and then restore the failed system after the system failure is intelligently identified and repaired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Broadly speaking, the present invention fills these needs by providing an intelligent backup and restore system that prevents downtime productivity losses, and assists the user in trouble shooting the failure, repairing the failure if possible, and restoring the failed system back to its pre-failure condition. The present invention also provides techniques for preparing (e.g., partitioning/formatting/restoring) the drive that is to be the intelligent Genesis drive. All of these functionalities are provided to the user through a user friendly graphical user interface that helps the user resume his or her normal computer use by booting to a peripheral storage device (that holds an intelligently backup data set) while the failure is remedied. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer readable medium. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
In one embodiment, a method for preparing a drive that is connected to a computer system is disclosed. In this embodiment, the computer system also has a primary hard drive. The method includes generating a list of devices that are connected to the computer system. The list of devices includes at least the primary hard drive and a secondary drive. The method then advances to enable the selection of the secondary drive to be a backup drive for the computer system. The backup drive is then partitioned to match a partition arrangement of the primary hard drive of the computer system. Once partitioned, the method proceeds by fake formatting the partitions of the backup drive. The fake formatting is configured to only partially format the partitions of the backup drive. After fake formatting, the method moves to reboot the computer system from the primary hard drive. The partitions of the backup drive are then formatted implementing a complete formatting scheme.
In another embodiment, a method for preparing a backup drive that is connected to a computer system is disclosed. The method includes selecting a secondary drive to be the backup drive. Then, the method advances to partition the backup drive to match a partition arrangement of a primary hard drive of the computer system. Once partitioned, the method moves to fake format the partitions of the backup drive. The fake formatting is configured to only partially format the partitions of the backup drive, and the partially formatting is designed to partially fill-in BIOS parameter block structure fields for each one of the partitions of the backup drive. The method also includes rebooting from the primary hard drive of the computer system and then formatting the partitions of the backup drive with a complete formatting scheme. Once completely formatted, files from the primary hard drive are copied to the backup drive. The copying is configured to move files between the partition arrangement of the primary hard drive to the matching partition arrangement of the backup drive.
In yet another embodiment, a computer readable media containing program instructions for preparing a drive that is connected to a computer system is disclosed. The computer system is configured to have a primary hard drive. The computer readable media includes program instructions for generating a list of devices that are connected to the computer system. The list of devices includes at least the primary hard drive and a secondary drive. The computer readable media further includes program instructions for selecting the secondary drive to be a backup drive, and program instructions for partitioning the backup drive to match a partition arrangement
Goshey Michael M.
Maffezzoni Guido
Adaptec, Inc.
Martine & Penilla LLP
Nguyen Hiep T.
LandOfFree
Drive preparation methods for intelligent backup systems does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Drive preparation methods for intelligent backup systems, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Drive preparation methods for intelligent backup systems will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2472935