Method of preventng software piracy by uniquely identifying the specific magnetic storage device the software is stored on

Claim 1

A method for locking software to a specific magnetic storage device, comprising the steps of: a. detecting a location of a bad area on said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time; b. determining a location of a bad bit specific within the bad area on said specific magnetic storage device, wherein the step of determining the location of a bad bit includes the steps of: causing to be written into the bad area a test pattern having a plurality of bits; then causing data having a plurality of bits to be read from the bad area; then comparing the bits of the test pattern to the bits of the data read from the bad area; and determining the location of a bit in said data read from the bad area that does not match an associated bit of the test pattern; c. then storing the location on said magnetic storage device of the bad area and the location of the bad bit into an identification number storage area associated with a software program; and d. executing the software program; and looking for said bad area and bad bit on a current magnetic storage device, wherein if, when the software program is attempted to be executed, the bad area and bad bit locations stored in the identification number storage area are found on a current magnetic storage device, said current magnetic storage device is identified as said specific magnetic storage device.

Claim 2

A method for locking software to a specific magnetic storage device, comprising the steps of: a. detecting a location of a bad area on said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time; b. determining a location of a bad bit specific within the bad area on said specific magnetic storage device, wherein the step of determining the location of a bad bit includes the steps of: causing to be written into the bad area a test pattern having a plurality of bits; then causing data having a plurality of bits to be read from the bad area; then comparing the bits of the test pattern to the bits of the data read from the bad area; and determining the location of a bit in said data read from the bad area that does not match an associated bit of the test pattern; c. then storing the location on said magnetic storage device of the bad area and the location of the bad bit into an identification number storage area associated with a software program; and d. executing the software program; and looking for said bad area and bad bit on a current magnetic storage device, wherein if, when the software program is attempted to be executed, the bad area and bad bit locations stored in the identification number storage area are found on a current magnetic storage device, said current magnetic storage device is identified as said specific magnetic storage device.

Claim 4

An apparatus for locking a software program to a specific magnetic storage device comprising: a detector for detecting, at a first point in time, the location of a bad area of said specific magnetic storage device and for detecting a location of a bad bit within the bad area, wherein the detector detects a bad bit by writing a test pattern in the bad area, then reads the area where the test pattern was written, compares the test pattern read against the test pattern written, and determines a bit in the read test pattern that does not match an associated bit in the written test pattern; and the detector also stores the location of the bad area and bad bit on said specific magnetic storage device in an identification storage area associated with a software program; and a software program execution means operative to read the location information stored in the identification storage area and to execute the software program if a current magnetic storage device includes a bad area and a bad bit at the same location as that stored in the identification storage area for said specific magnetic storage device.

Claim 5

An apparatus for locking a software program to a specific magnetic storage device comprising: a detector for detecting, at a first point in time, the location of a bad area of said specific magnetic storage device and for detecting a location of a bad bit within the bad area, wherein the detector detects a bad bit by writing a test pattern in the bad area, then reads the area where the test pattern was written, compares the test pattern read against the test pattern written, and determines a bit in the read test pattern that does not match an associated bit in the written test pattern; and the detector also stores the location of the bad area and bad bit on said specific magnetic storage device in an identification storage area associated with a software program; and a software program execution means operative to read the location information stored in the identification storage area and to execute the software program if a current magnetic storage device includes a bad area and a bad bit at the same location as that stored in the identification storage area for said specific magnetic storage device.

Claim 7

An apparatus for identifying a specific magnetic storage device comprising: an identification storage area, associated with said specific magnetic storage device, having recorded therein a first plurality of voltages read from a specific surface area of said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time, said voltages representing data from bad bits and bad areas stored on said magnetic storage device, wherein a detector detects a bad bit by writing a test pattern in the bad area, then reads the area where the test pattern was written, compares the test pattern read against the test pattern written, and determines a bit in the lead test pattern that does not match an associated bit in the written test pattern; at least a first comparator operative to compare the first plurality of voltages stored in said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time and to compare the first plurality of voltages stored in said identification storage area with a second plurality of voltages read from a same specific surface area of a current magnetic storage device at a second point in time; and if the first and second plurality of voltages match, then the comparator outputs an identification match signal to an associated computing system.

Claim 8

An apparatus for identifying a specific magnetic storage device comprising: an identification storage area, associated with said specific magnetic storage device, having recorded therein a first plurality of voltages read from a specific surface area of said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time, said voltages representing data from bad bits and bad areas stored on said magnetic storage device, wherein a detector detects a bad bit by writing a test pattern in the bad area, then reads the area where the test pattern was written, compares the test pattern read against the test pattern written, and determines a bit in the lead test pattern that does not match an associated bit in the written test pattern; at least a first comparator operative to compare the first plurality of voltages stored in said specific magnetic storage device at a first point in time and to compare the first plurality of voltages stored in said identification storage area with a second plurality of voltages read from a same specific surface area of a current magnetic storage device at a second point in time; and if the first and second plurality of voltages match, then the comparator outputs an identification match signal to an associated computing system.