Computer system with automatic drive model ID recognition and drive type adaptation

Claim 2

In a computer system having a disk drive and having a configuration memory, a method of conditionally specifying to the computer system a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive, comprising the steps of: sending a model-identification-query to the disk drive, said model-identification-query causing the disk drive to return a model-identification-string which identifies the disk drive's manufacturer and model number: comparing the model-identification-string returned from the disk drive against a plurality of entries within a recognition table, said recognition table containing an entry for each of a plurality of disk drives, by vendor and model number thereof, which are each known to perform satisfactorily with the computer system, said recognition table being pre-stored within the computer system and containing, for each entry, a field specifying a permissible model-identification-string for the respective entry and a field specifying a corresponding drive-type-number for the respective entry, said comparing step for finding an entry within the recognition table which corresponds to the returned model-identification-string, if such a matching entry is present within the recognition table, and otherwise for determining that no matching entry is present within the recognition table; retrieving, upon finding a matching entry within the recognition table, the drive-type-number corresponding thereto; storing, upon retrieving a drive-type-number from the recognition table, the retrieved drive-type-number into the configuration memory of the computer system; and preventing upon determining that no matching entry is present within the recognition table, a user of the computer system from manually storing a drive-type-number into the configuration memory of the computer system; wherein the drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive are specified to the computer system by reference to a pre-stored configuration table using the retrieved drive-type-number previously stored within the configuration memory, said configuration table containing, for each drive-type-number from a group of known drive-type-numbers, a corresponding plurality of drive parameters.

Claim 3

A method as in claim 1 wherein the comparing step comprises the steps of: encrypting the model-identification-string returned from the disk drive, thereby forming an encrypted returned model-identification-string; comparing the encrypted returned model-identification-string against entries within the recognition table until a matching entry is found, if at all, said entries within the recognition table containing permissible model-identification-strings which are pre-encrypted in like manner as in the encrypting step; thereby preventing the direct reading of permissible model-identification-strings within the recognition table unless the encrypting step is known.

Claim 4

A method as in claim 1, wherein the model-identification-string returned from the disk drive includes a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive; and wherein each of the plurality of permissible model-identification-strings stored within the recognition table includes a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for a disk drive corresponding to the respective entry; and wherein the comparing step finds a matching entry within the recognition table only if the plurality of drive parameters contained within the returned model-identification-string matches an entry within the recognition table.

Claim 5

A method as in claim 2 wherein the encrypting step comprises the step of performing, for each byte of the returned model-identification-string, a byte-flip operation.

Claim 6

A method as in claim 2 wherein the encrypting step comprises the step of performing, for each byte of the returned model-identification-string, an exclusive-OR operation with a predetermined byte-constant.

Claim 7

A method as in claim 5 wherein the predetermined byte-constant comprises a hexadecimal value "5A".

Claim 8

A method as in claim 1 wherein the disk drive of the computer system comprises an IDE disk drive.

Claim 9

A method as in claim 7 wherein the disk drive of the computer system includes an integrated controller conforming to the ATA interface standard.

Claim 10

A method as in claim 1 wherein the method steps recited therein are performed by the computer system under control of software resident within a non-volatile memory.

Claim 11

A method as in claim 1 wherein the recognition table is updateable.

Claim 12

A method as in claim 1 wherein the recognition table and the configuration table are combined into one table.

Claim 13

In a computer system having a disk drive and having a configuration memory, a method of conditionally specifying to the computer system a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive, absent any interaction with a user of the computer system, comprising the steps of: sending a model-identification-query to the disk drive, said model-identification-query causing the disk drive to return a model-identification-string which identifies the disk drive's manufacturer and model number; encrypting the model-identification-string returned from the disk drive, thereby forming an encrypted returned model-identification-string; comparing the encrypted returned model-identification-string against a plurality of entries within a recognition table, said recognition table containing an entry for each of a plurality of disk drives, by vendor and model number thereof, which are each known to perform satisfactorily with the computer system, said recognition table being pre-stored within the computer system and containing, for each entry, a field specifying a pre-encrypted permissible model-identification-string for the respective entry and a field specifying a corresponding drive-type-number for the respective entry, said pre-encrypted permissible model-identification-strings being pre-encrypted in like manner as in the encrypting step, said comparing step for finding an entry within the recognition table corresponding to the returned model-identification-string, if such a matching entry is present within the recognition table, and otherwise for determining that no matching entry is present within the recognition table; retrieving, upon finding a matching entry within the recognition table, the drive-type-number corresponding thereto; and storing, upon retrieving a drive-type-number from the recognition table, the retrieved drive-type-number into the configuration memory of the computer system; whereby the drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive are specified to the computer system by reference to a pre-stored configuration table using the retrieved drive-type-number previously stored within the configuration memory, said configuration table containing, for each drive-type-number from a group of known drive-type-numbers, a corresponding plurality of drive parameters.

Claim 14

In a computer system having a disk drive and having a configuration memory, a method of conditionally specifying to the computer system a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive, absent any interaction with a user of the computer system, comprising the steps of: sending a model-identification-query to the disk drive, said model-identification-query causing the disk drive to return a model-identification-string which identifies the disk drive's manufacturer and model number; encrypting the model-identification-string returned from the disk drive, thereby forming an encrypted returned model-identification-string; comparing the encrypted returned model-identification-string against a plurality of entries within a recognition table, said recognition table containing an entry for each of a plurality of disk drives, by vendor and model number thereof, which are each known to perform satisfactorily with the computer system, said recognition table being pre-stored within the computer system and containing, for each entry, a field specifying a pre-encrypted permissible model-identification-string for the respective entry and a field specifying a corresponding drive-type-number for the respective entry, said pre-encrypted permissible model-identification-strings being pre-encrypted in like manner as in the encrypting step, said comparing step for finding an entry within the recognition table corresponding to the returned model-identification-string, if such a matching entry is present within the recognition table, and otherwise for determining that no matching entry is present within the recognition table; retrieving, upon finding a matching entry within the recognition table, the drive-type-number corresponding thereto; and storing, upon retrieving a drive-type-number from the recognition table, the retrieved drive-type-number into the configuration memory of the computer system; whereby the drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive are specified to the computer system by reference to a pre-stored configuration table using the retrieved drive-type-number previously stored within the configuration memory, said configuration table containing, for each drive-type-number from a group of known drive-type-numbers, a corresponding plurality of drive parameters.

Claim 15

A method as in claim 12 wherein the encrypting step comprises the step of performing, for each byte of the returned model-identification-string, an exclusive-OR operation with a predetermined byte-constant.

Claim 16

A method as in claim 13 wherein the predetermined byte-constant comprises a hexadecimal value "5A".

Claim 17

A method as in claim 12 wherein the disk drive of the computer system comprises an IDE disk drive.

Claim 18

A method as in claim 15 wherein the disk drive of the computer system includes an integrated controller conforming to the ATA interface standard.

Claim 19

A method as in claim 12 wherein the method steps recited therein are performed by the computer system under control of software resident within a non-volatile memory.

Claim 20

A method as in claim 12: wherein the modal-identification-string returned from the disk drive includes a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for the disk drive; and wherein each of the plurality of permissible model-identification-strings stored within the recognition table includes a plurality of drive parameters appropriate for a disk drive corresponding to the respective entry; and wherein the comparing step finds a matching entry within the recognition table only if the plurality of drive parameters contained within the returned model-identification-string matches an entry within the recognition table.

Claim 21

A method as in claim 12 wherein the reception table is unpdateable.

Claim 22

A method as in claim 12 wherein the recognition table and the configuration table are combined into one table.