Patent EP0426185A2 successfully refreshed from Google Patents.
EP0426185A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Data redundancy and recovery protection
Assignee: Compaq Computer Corp
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Filing: 1990-11-02
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2010-11-02
Abstract
Abstract A method for detecting the presence of a replacement disk in a fault tolerant, intelligent mass storage disk array subsystem having a microprocessor based controller in a personal computer system and rebuilding the replacement disk independent of the computer system processor. The method calls for the microprocessor controller to run a disk array check at system powerup or at specified intervals at which will detect the existence of a replacement drive. The microprocessor then builds a series of disk drive commands which attempt to read every sector on the replacement disk. The read commands will return a null data read, indicating that the sector must be restored. The microprocessor controller converts the replacement read commands for all sectors on the replacement disk to write-restore commands. The microprocessor executes the write commands and restores the data to the replacement drive.
Inventors
- 👤 Stephen M. Schultz
- 👤 David S. Schmenk
- 👤 David L. Flower
- 👤 David E. Neufeld
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-01 14:40
CPC Classifications
G; G11; G11C; G11C29/00; G11C29/70; G11C29/74; G06; G06F; G06F11/00; G06F11/07; G06F11/08; G06F11/10; G06F11/1076; G06F11/1092; G11B; G11B20/00; G11B20/10; G11B20/18; G11B20/1833
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
166 words
For use with a computer system having a fault tolerant, intelligent mass storage disk array subsystem, the disk subsystem having a microprocessor based controller, a method for rebuilding a replacement disk drive within the array without system processor supervision or suspension of system operations comprising: reading disk array and disk drive status information and fault tolerance mode for the disk array from reserved sectors on all disk drives within the drive array; determining if one or more of the drives in the array has been replaced from disk drive status information; reading all sectors on the replacement drive, thereby causing a failed sector read to occur when attempting to read the replacement drive sectors, indicating a sector to be restored; generating rebuild commands for the replacement disk by writing to each failed sector utilizing the active fault tolerance mode; queueing the rebuild commands; and executing the rebuild commands by the microprocessor controller independent of the computer system processor, thereby restoring data to the replacement disk drive.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
166 words
For use with a computer system having a fault tolerant, intelligent mass storage disk array subsystem, the disk subsystem having a microprocessor based controller, a method for rebuilding a replacement disk drive within the array without system processor supervision or suspension of system operations comprising: reading disk array and disk drive status information and fault tolerance mode for the disk array from reserved sectors on all disk drives within the drive array; determining if one or more of the drives in the array has been replaced from disk drive status information; reading all sectors on the replacement drive, thereby causing a failed sector read to occur when attempting to read the replacement drive sectors, indicating a sector to be restored; generating rebuild commands for the replacement disk by writing to each failed sector utilizing the active fault tolerance mode; queueing the rebuild commands; and executing the rebuild commands by the microprocessor controller independent of the computer system processor, thereby restoring data to the replacement disk drive.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 1, wherein determining if one or more of the disk drives in the disk array is a replacement drive includes running a drive array check program by the microprocessor controller at each computer system power-up.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
37 words
The method of claim 1, wherein determining if one or more of the disk drives in the disk array is a replacement drive includes running a drive array check program at periodic intervals by the microprocessor controller.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
42 words
The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein determining if one or more of the disk drives in the disk array is a replacement drive includes comparing individual disk drive information to a disk array configuration template maintained by the microprocessor controller.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
59 words
Method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein reading all sectors on the replaced drive includes creating an information packet for each sector on the drive, the information packet including drive array and disk drive information from a disk array configuration template, a read command and physical drive parameters indicating the location of the sector to be read.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
65 words
The method of claim 5, wherein generating rebuild commands includes: creating a rebuild header command, including information from the drive array and disk drive configuration template, the fault tolerance mode and instructions to activate the fault recovery mode; changing the read command for each sector in the replacement drive to a write command; and linking all of the write commands to the rebuild command header.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
34 words
The method of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein the method of restoring data to the replacement disk drive includes writing the restored data to the replacement disk from a mirror data disk.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
39 words
The method of any of claims 1 to 6, wtterein the method of restoring data to the replacement disk drive includes, generating the restored data utilizing an XOR parity technique from data on the remaining disks within the array.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
29 words
The method of claim 8, wherein the method of generating the restored data includes generating the restored data utilizing a dedicated XOR parity engine within the disk array subsystem.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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