Field-operable, stand-alone apparatus for media recovery and regeneration

• US 20030041284A1
• Filed: 09/23/2002
• Published: 02/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MCM Portfolio LLC
• Original Assignee: OnSpec Electronic Incorporated
• Inventors: Jones, Larry Lawson, Venkidu, Arockiyaswamy, Mambakkam, Sreenath
• Granted Patent: US 6,839,864 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/38 Information transfer, e.g. on bus G06F13/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/387 for adaptation of different data processing systems to different peripheral devices, e.g. protocol converters for incompatible systems, open system
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/07741 comprising a first part operating as a regular record carrier and a second attachable part that changes the functional appearance of said record carrier, e.g. a contact-based smart card with an adapter part which, when attached to the contact card makes the contact card function as a non-contact card
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0013 by galvanic contacts, e.g. card connectors for ISO-7816 compliant smart cards or memory cards, e.g. SD card readers connectors in general H01R13/00; connectors for SIM cards used in mobile phones or the like H04B1/3816
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0043 the plurality of cards being cards of different formats, e.g. SD card and memory stick
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/0052 connectors capable of contacting cards of different formats, e.g. memory stick and SD card readers sharing at least one connector contact and the associated signal line, e.g. both using the same signal line for input or output of data

Abstract

A field-operable stand-alone apparatus for recovering data from corrupted flash media and regenerated damaged flash media. The apparatus enables users in the field to recover data from and/or regenerate damaged flash media without requiring the use of a computer. In one aspect, recovery comprises using a low-level access scheme that enables data to be recovered when high-level interfaces, such as file systems, are damaged. The type of flash media is determined, and a corresponding access scheme is employed. Depending on the type of damage to the media, a physical-to-logical table may be built and employed to sequentially access the flash media in search of indicia from which selectable file-types can be identified, or the media may be accessed using normal operating system commands. Once the file indicia are found, the location of corresponding file data is identified, whereupon the file data are read and stored. The apparatus may include a plurality of different connectors to interface with different media form factors, or a universal connector that employs various form-factor adaptors to interface with the different flash media configurations.

Claims

1. A field-operable apparatus, comprising:

a housing in which apparatus electronics are housed including,

a controller;

at least one flash media connector operatively coupled to the controller, configured to accept at least one type of flash media either directly or via a flash media connector adaptor to enable communication with said at least one type of flash media;

storage means, operatively coupled to the controller; and

memory operatively coupled to or built into the controller in which instructions are stored, which when executed by the controller perform the operations of;

detecting an activation event, and response thereto,

recovering data corresponding to at least one application file from a corrupted flash media device coupled to the flash media connector; and

storing the recovered data on the storage means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the flash media comprises one of a CompactFlash device, SmartMedia card, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital card and Sony Memory Stick-compatible device or any flash media device having a similar form factor thereto.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage means comprises a removable mass storage device that can store data on a removable media.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage means comprises persistent memory.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions recovers said at least one application file by performing the operations of:

accessing the flash media at a low level to access raw flash data stored on the flash media device;

searching the raw flash data for file indicia corresponding at least one predetermined file type; and

reading data from the raw flash data based on information in the file indicia, said data comprising a recovered file.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the flash media is accessed and searched by performing the operations of:

building a physical-to-logical table mapping physical storage locations to logical storage locations; and

sequentially searching through logical sectors in search of the file indicia based on the physical-to-logical table.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the file indicia comprises a file header, and in response to finding a file header execution of the instructions further performs the operations of:

extracting a file size from the file header corresponding to a file;

reading data beginning with the file header or a starting point identified by the file header up to the file size.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein execution of the instructions further performs the operations of:

determining a starting location from which to search the flash media; and

sequentially searching through the flash media for file indicia using one of a physical or logical storage sequence.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one flash media connector comprises a plurality of flash media connectors having respective configurations for receiving different respective types of flash media.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a user-input control via which a user can generate the activation event.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an annunciation means coupled to the controller, wherein execution of the instructions further performs the operation of activating the annunciation means in response to completing a recovery operation.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions recovers said at least one application file by performing the operations of:

determining a media type of the flash media;

building a physical-to-logical table mapping physical storage locations to physical storage locations based on the type of flash media;

searching the flash media for a file header corresponding to at least one predetermined file type using the physical-to-logical table; and

reading data from the raw flash data based on information in the file header

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein execution of the instructions further performs the operations of:

determining any portion(s) of the media that is/are corrupted;

generating rebuild data by which the corrupted portion(s) of the media may be regenerated; and

rewriting the corrupted portion(s) of the flash media with the rebuild data.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a display means operatively coupled to the controller by which information can be displayed to a user.

15. A field-operable apparatus, comprising:

a housing in which apparatus electronics are housed including,

a controller;

at least one flash media connector operatively coupled to the controller, configured to accept at least one type of flash media either directly or via a flash media connector adaptor to enable communication with said at least one type of flash media; and

memory operatively coupled to or built into the controller in which instructions are stored, which when executed by the controller regenerated corrupted flash media by performing the operations of;

reading data from a corrupted flash media device coupled to one of said at least one flash media connector;

determining any portion(s) of the media that is/are corrupted;

generating rebuild data by which the corrupted portion(s) of the media may be regenerated; and

rewriting the corrupted portion(s) of the flash media with the rebuild data.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the flash media comprises one of a CompactFlash device, SmartMedia card, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital card and Sony Memory Stick-compatible device.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the memory further contains data corresponding to a lookup table containing file system parameters particular to different types of flash media, and wherein execution of the instructions generates the rebuild data by performing the operations of:

determining a media type of the flash media;

identifying a damaged file system component; and

employing the lookup table containing the file system parameters to rebuild the file system component based on the media type of the flash media.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the damaged file system component includes one of a master boot record, disk boot record or root directory.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein execution of the instructions by the controller further perform the operation of detecting an activation event corresponding to a request for regenerating corrupted media, and regenerating the flash media in response thereto.

20. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising a display means operatively coupled to the controller by which information can be displayed to a user.