Method, system and article of manufacture for system recovery

• US 20060085666A1
• Filed: 10/14/2004
• Published: 04/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Trend Micro Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stakutis, Christopher John, Shaw, Jennifer Martin, Stearns, Kevin Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,370,234 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures

Abstract

Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for system recovery. An operating system and a backup copy of the operating system are both maintained in a partition of a computational device. A boot loader receives an indication to load the backup copy of the operating system. The boot loader loads the backup copy of the operating system. The computational device is rebooted with the loaded backup copy of the operating system.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

maintaining, in a partition of a computational device, both an operating system and a backup copy of the operating system;

receiving, by a boot loader, an indication to load the backup copy of the operating system;

loading, by the boot loader, the backup copy of the operating system; and

rebooting the computational device with the loaded backup copy of the operating system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

executing a file system filter on a native file system driver of the operating system; and

protecting, by the file system filter, the backup copy of the operating system from alteration.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a same directory structure is maintained for files of the operating system and files of the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein the files of the operating system and the files of the backup copy include an operating system kernel, an windowing program, and at least one device driver.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein a first indicator stores a location of the backup copy of the operating system, and a second indicator stores a location from which the boot loader loads the operating system, and wherein the loading of the backup copy of the operating system further comprises:

copying, by the boot loader, the location of the backup copy of the operating system from the first indicator to the second indicator;

reading, by the boot loader, the second indicator to determine a location from which to load programs to reboot the computational device; and

initiating, by the boot loader, a loading of the programs to reboot the computational device from the determined location;

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a file system filter protects the backup copy of the operating system from alteration, wherein the file system filter stores in a first indicator a location of the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein in response to the indication the boot loader uses the first indicator to populate a boot directory name field that is used to load the operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of backup copies of the operating system are stored in the partition, and wherein the boot loader loads one of the plurality of backup copies of the operating system in response to a corruption of the operating system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein storage of the operating system and the backup copy of the operating system in the partition allows a substitution of the operating system with the copy of the operating system without a block by block copying of the operating system by the boot loader.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a corruption of the operating system and a usage of the backup copy of the operating system for the rebooting causes no loss of user data in the computational device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the boot loader is stored in the Read Only Memory (ROM) of the computational device, wherein the operating system is corrupted, and wherein loading of the corrupted operating system by the boot loader causes a reboot of the computational device to fail.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a first directory includes the operating system and a second directory includes the backup copy of the operating system, the method further comprising:

creating the backup copy of the operating system, in response to a command from a user;

renaming the second directory to the first directory to use the backup copy of the operating system to reboot the computational device; and

updating the backup copy of the operating system, wherein the updated backup copy of the operating system is used to reboot the computational device.

11. A system, comprising:

memory;

a partition coupled to the memory; and

circuitry coupled to the memory, wherein the circuitry is capable of;

(i) maintaining both an operating system and a backup copy of the operating system in the partition;

(ii) receiving, by a boot loader, an indication to load the backup copy of the operating system;

(iii) loading, by the boot loader, the backup copy of the operating system; and

(iv) rebooting the system with the loaded backup copy of the operating system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the circuitry is further capable of:

executing a file system filter on a native file system driver of the operating system; and

protecting, by the file system filter, the backup copy of the operating system from alteration.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein a same directory structure is maintained for files of the operating system and files of the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein the files of the operating system and the files of the backup copy include an operating system kernel, an windowing program, and at least one device driver.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein a first indicator stores a location of the backup copy of the operating system, and a second indicator stores a location from which the boot loader loads the operating system, and wherein the loading of the backup copy of the operating system further comprises:

copying, by the boot loader, the location of the backup copy of the operating system from the first indicator to the second indicator;

reading, by the boot loader, the second indicator to determine a location from which to load programs to reboot the system; and

initiating, by the boot loader, a loading of the programs to reboot the system from the determined location;

15. The system of claim 11, wherein a file system filter protects the backup copy of the operating system from alteration, wherein the file system filter stores in a first indicator a location of the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein in response to the indication the boot loader uses the first indicator to populate a boot directory name field that is used to load the operating system.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein a plurality of backup copies of the operating system are stored in the partition, and wherein the boot loader loads one of the plurality of backup copies of the operating system in response to a corruption of the operating system.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein storage of the operating system and the backup copy of the operating system in the partition allows a substitution of the operating system with the copy of the operating system without a block by block copying of the operating system by the boot loader.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein a corruption of the operating system and a usage of the backup copy of the operating system for the rebooting causes no loss of user data in the system.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the boot loader is stored in the Read Only Memory (ROM) of the system, wherein the operating system is corrupted, and wherein loading of the corrupted operating system by the boot loader causes a reboot of the system to fail.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein a first directory includes the operating system and a second directory includes the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein the circuitry is further capable of:

creating the backup copy of the operating system, in response to a command from a user;

renaming the second directory to the first directory to use the backup copy of the operating system to reboot the system; and

updating the backup copy of the operating system, wherein the updated backup copy of the operating system is used to reboot the system.

21. An article of manufacture, wherein the article of manufacture is capable of causing operations in a computational device having a boot loader, the operations comprising:

maintaining, in a partition of the computational device, both an operating system and a backup copy of the operating system;

receiving, by the boot loader, an indication to load the backup copy of the operating system;

loading, by the boot loader, the backup copy of the operating system; and

rebooting the computational device with the loaded backup copy of the operating system.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 21, the operations further comprising:

executing a file system filter on a native file system driver of the operating system; and

protecting, by the file system filter, the backup copy of the operating system from alteration.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein a same directory structure is maintained for files of the operating system and files of the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein the files of the operating system and the files of the backup copy include an operating system kernel, an windowing program, and at least one device driver.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein a first indicator stores a location of the backup copy of the operating system, and a second indicator stores a location from which the boot loader loads the operating system, and wherein the loading of the backup copy of the operating system further comprises:

copying, by the boot loader, the location of the backup copy of the operating system from the first indicator to the second indicator;

reading, by the boot loader, the second indicator to determine a location from which to load programs to reboot the computational device; and

initiating, by the boot loader, a loading of the programs to reboot the computational device from the determined location;

25. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein a file system filter protects the backup copy of the operating system from alteration, wherein the file system filter stores in a first indicator a location of the backup copy of the operating system, and wherein in response to the indication the boot loader uses the first indicator to populate a boot directory name field that is used to load the operating system.

26. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein a plurality of backup copies of the operating system are stored in the partition, and wherein the boot loader loads one of the plurality of backup copies of the operating system in response to a corruption of the operating system.

27. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein storage of the operating system and the backup copy of the operating system in the partition allows a substitution of the operating system with the copy of the operating system without a block by block copying of the operating system by the boot loader.

28. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein a corruption of the operating system and a usage of the backup copy of the operating system for the rebooting causes no loss of user data in the computational device.

29. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein the boot loader is stored in the Read Only Memory (ROM) of the computational device, wherein the operating system is corrupted, and wherein loading of the corrupted operating system by the boot loader causes a reboot of the computational device to fail.

30. The article of manufacture of claim 21, wherein a first directory includes the operating system and a second directory includes the backup copy of the operating system, the operations further comprising:

creating the backup copy of the operating system, in response to a command from a user;

renaming the second directory to the first directory to use the backup copy of the operating system to reboot the computational device; and

updating the backup copy of the operating system, wherein the updated backup copy of the operating system is used to reboot the computational device.