Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Storage accessing and control – Control technique
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-23
2002-05-07
Nguyen, Than (Department: 2187)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Storage accessing and control
Control technique
C211S163000, C211S163000, C211S004000, C211S111000, C211S112000, C211S113000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C714S013000, C714S014000, C714S015000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06385707
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. 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 copying files from a primary drive of a computer system is disclosed. The method includes selecting files to be copied from the primary drive of the computer system to a backup drive. The selected files include operating system files and program and data files.. The method then advances to commencement of an initial copying of the selected files. The method now generates a list of non-copied files during the copying of the selected files. The list of non-copied files represent files that are locked by an operating system running on the primary drive. A shut down of the operating system is then commenced causing the operating system to shut down and release the previously locked files. Once the previously locked files are released, the method moves to copying the files identified in the list of non-copied files from the primary drive to the backup drive in order to make the backup drive a fully bootable drive.
In another embodiment, a system for copying locked system files from a first drive of a computer system to a second drive is disclosed. The method includes beginning a copying of selected files from the first drive to the second drive. Then, the method moves to detecting one or more locked files while the copying of the selected files is in progress. The locked files are such that they are prevented from being copied from the first drive to the second drive. The method then moves to where a list on non-copied files that includes the one or more locked files is generated. The generation of this list is configured to occur while the copying of the selected files is in progress. A path for the list of non-copied files is then placed in a system registry of the computer system. A shut down of the computer system is configured to shut down an operating system of the computer system before software drivers are shut down. A software driver is thus implemented to call on the list of non-copied files in the system registry. The software drive is designed to cause a copying of the one or more locked files from the first drive to the second drive before a complete shut down occurs.
In yet another embodiment, a computer readable media containing program instructions for copying locked system files from a primary drive of a computer system to a secondary drive is disclosed. The computer readable media includes program instructions for beginning a copying of selected files from the primary drive to the secondary drive. Also included are program instructions for detecting one or more locked files while the copying of the selected files is in progress. The locked files are such that they are prevented from being copied from the primary drive to the secondary drive. Program instructions for generating a list on non-copied files that includes the one or more locked files is also generated. The gener
Adaptec, Inc.
Martine & Penilla LLP
Nguyen Than
LandOfFree
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