Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-22
2002-03-12
Lintz, Paul R. (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06356915
ABSTRACT:
NOTICE OF COPYRIGHTS AND TRADE DRESS
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. This patent document may show and/or describe matter, which is or may become trade dress of the owner. The copyright and trade dress owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright and trade dress rights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and, more particularly, to object oriented data management. The present invention further relates to visual representation of data as files stored on logical drives.
2. Description of Related Art
A computer operating system represents a collection of computer programs or routines which control the execution of application programs and that may provide services such as resource allocation, scheduling, input/output control, and data management. Most operating systems store logical units of data in files, and files are typically grouped in logical units of folders. Folders are themselves files which identify the files assigned to them and a folder can store other folders. Folders are sometimes also referred to as directories. An interrelated collection of files is called a file system.
Most file systems have not only files, but also data about the files in the file system. This data typically includes time of creation, time of last access, time of last write, time of last change, file characteristics (e.g., read-only, system file, hidden file, archive file, control file), and allocation size.
Most operating systems are designed to shield applications from direct interaction with the hardware which actually store file systems. File systems typically are stored in mass storage devices. A mass storage is a device having a large storage capacity, and may be read-write (e.g., a hard disk drive) or read-only (e.g., a CD-ROM drive). Some mass storage devices, for example RAID systems, comprise a collection of mass storage devices. Mass storage devices also typically have the quality of non-volatility.
Most contemporary operating systems, and Windows NT/95/98 in particular, have layered models of drivers where each layer has a particular set of responsibilities. On the lowest level there are drivers that work directly with hardware (mass storage devices, network cards, buses, etc.). Higher level drivers communicate with lower level drivers in order to exchange information between the hardware the user. A driver for one type of mass storage device will differ from a driver for another type of mass storage device, and both of these drivers will differ from a driver used to interface the operating system to a printer.
Typical hard disk drives store data in minimum units of sectors. Sectors on a hard disk drive typically comprise an addressable subdivision of a track used to record one block of data on the hard disk drive. Hard disk device drivers typically provide services for reading sectors from a hard disk drive and writing sectors to the hard disk drive. The hard disk device driver typically relates to the data only on the sector-level, and cannot relate to the data on a file system level.
The storage space of a mass storage device is logically divided into one or more logical disks also known as partitions. Conversely, drivers are available which will treat a group of mass storage devices as a single logical disk. In Windows operating systems, each logical disk is served by a disk device driver which also holds a drive designation, C:, D:, E,. etc. Windows operating systems don't limit logical disks being part of a mass storage device. For example, a RAM disk uses part of the computer's operating memory as a storage of its sectors.
The task of interfacing applications to the contents of a logical disk is assigned to a file system driver. A file system driver is a collection of function routines and file management structures that perform various tasks related to files and folders stored in logical disks. The function routines of a file system driver are used to open specified files, read specific blocks of data, write specific blocks of data, and close files. A file system driver is a significant portion of an operating system. File system drivers uses the services of a disk device driver to read sectors, translate sector data and give the user lists of files stored on the hard disk drive.
The structure of data stored in a logical disk is file system-dependent. For example, the FAT file system requires a logical disk to have a boot sector that describes location of File Allocation Tables (FAT) sectors and root directory sectors within this disk. Other file systems, such as NTFS, HPFS, etc. operate with different data structures and are incompatible with the structures of other file systems.
The process of coupling a file system driver and a disk device driver is called “mounting of the file system on the disk device.” When the operating system detects a new disk device in the system, the operating system sends a mount request to each file system driver that is currently registered with the operating system. The mount request includes a number of parameters, including a reference to the disk device driver that serves the new disk device. When a registered file system driver receives a mount request, the file system driver reads predefined sectors from the disk using services of the disk's device driver in order to check if data structures in the sector correspond to what is expected by this file system. If a file system driver recognizes the expected data structures, the file system driver returns a code to the operating system which indicates that the file system driver will serve all of the file requests for the new disk device. At this point the mount process is complete. A disk device with a mounted file system is also known as a volume.
As operating systems become more complex, file systems likewise become more complex. A file system for a computer network operating system may have hundreds of function routines. The vast majority of these function routines may provide seldom used, obscure functions not needed for basic file operations. Moreover, complex operating systems are often configured to optimize performance for specific types of devices. Typically, hard disk access performance is optimized because hard disks are capable of high data transfer rates and such access occurs nearly continuously in the operation of many computers and computer networks.
The organization of files within typical file systems of conventional operating systems is relatively inflexible. Conventional operating systems provide dividing a hard disk into several logical drives of varying size. Once the hard disk has been configured as one or more logical drives, alteration of the configuration is very difficult. Although the conventional operating systems permit changes to the logical drive configuration, this reconfiguration typically results in the destruction of the data in the reconfigured logical drives. Thus, before reconfiguring logical drives, the files stored on the logical drive must be backed up, and after reconfiguration, the files must be restored. This process of reconfiguring logical drives is very burdensome and exposes the files to damage. Furthermore, in most operating systems, only high level users, such as system administrators, have the security rights and skills to reconfigure logical drives. As a result, once a logical drive has been configured in a conventional operating system, it is rarely reconfigured.
Another characteristic of conventional operating systems, file system drivers and disk device drivers is that the contents of the logical drives cannot be customized. Conventional operating system such as Windows NT permit multiple users to have access to the files in a logical drive. However, the hierarchical representation of how the fi
Chtchetkine Vladimir
Kucheck Alan
Terechtenko Guennadi
Arter & Hadden LLP
Lintz Paul R.
Starbase Corp.
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