System and method for securing drive access to data storage media based on medium identifiers

• US 20060168652A1
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Chuck Roman, Curtis C. Ballard, Ian Peter Crighton, Peter Thomas Camble, Stephen Gold
• Inventors: Gold, Stephen, Ballard, Curtis C., Crighton, Ian Peter, Camble, Peter Thomas, Roman, Chuck
• Granted Patent: US 7,472,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/7
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/40 Combinations of multiple record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/002 Programmed access in sequence to a plurality of record carriers or indexed parts, e.g. tracks, thereof, e.g. for editing; transfer of record carriers from magazine G11B15/68, G11B17/10; G11B17/22
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 5/00813 magnetic tapes

Abstract

A method for securing access to a data medium comprises listing at least one unique identifier of media that a data transfer element is allowed to access in memory storage of the data transfer element, accessing only media having at least one of the listed unique identifiers in media cartridge memory with the data transfer element, and writing a unique identifier associated with the data transfer element to the cartridge memory of the selected medium with the data transfer element in response to no library assigned unique identifier being present in the cartridge memory of the selected medium.

Claims

1. A method for securing access to a data medium comprising:

listing at least one unique identifier of media that a data transfer element is allowed to access in memory storage of said data transfer element;

accessing only media having at least one of said listed unique identifiers in media cartridge memory with said data transfer element; and

writing a unique identifier associated with said data transfer element to said cartridge memory of said selected medium with said data transfer element in response to no library assigned unique identifier being present in said cartridge memory of said selected medium.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

reading a unique identifier from cartridge memory of a selected medium with said data transfer element; and

checking said memory storage of said data transfer element for said unique identifier from said selected medium cartridge memory.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

detecting presence of said unique identifiers in said cartridge memory of a selected medium.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said writing step further comprises:

accessing said selected medium.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said accessing step further comprises:

ejecting a selected medium in response to absence of said unique identifier of said selected medium in said memory storage of said data transfer element.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said data transfer element and said media that said data transfer element is allowed to access are part of a data library partition.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

overwriting an existing unique identifier in cartridge memory of a selected media with one of said listed unique identifiers associated with said data transfer element.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of said media are selected from a group of media consisting of:

media previously assigned a unique identifier, new blank media, media erroneously placed in said data transfer element, and imported media.

9. A method for securing access to data media in a particular partition of a partitioned data library, said method comprising:

listing at least one unique identifier of media that data transfer elements in said partition are allowed to access in memory storage of said data transfer elements in said partition;

reading a unique identifier from cartridge memory of a selected medium with a data transfer element receiving said selected medium;

checking said memory storage of said data transfer element receiving said selected medium for said unique identifier of said selected medium; and

accessing said selected medium in response to said unique identifier of said selected medium being present in said memory storage of said data transfer element receiving said selected medium.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

ejecting said selected medium in response to an absence of said unique identifier of said selected medium in said memory storage of said data transfer element receiving said selected medium.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising writing a unique identifier associated with said partition to said cartridge memory of said selected media, in response to no library assigned unique identifier being present in said cartridge memory of said selected medium.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said writing step further comprises:

accessing said selected medium.

13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

overwriting an existing unique identifier in cartridge memory of said selected media with one of said listed unique identifiers associated with said partition.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein said reading step further comprises detecting presence of any unique identifiers in said cartridge memory of said selected medium.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein at least one of said media are selected from a group of media consisting of:

media previously assigned a unique identifier, new blank media, media erroneously placed in said particular partition, media imported into said library, and media imported into said particular partition.

16. A partitioned data library comprising:

data storage media, each medium of said media having cartridge memory;

a plurality of storage element slots, each of said slots adapted to store one medium of said data storage media, at least one set of at least one of said slots assigned to one partition of a plurality of library partitions; and

a plurality of data transfer elements that are adapted to receive said media, read said medium cartridge memory and transfer data to and from said media, each of at least one set of at least one of said data transfer elements assigned to one of said library partitions, wherein said cartridge memory of a selected medium is read by one of said data transfer elements receiving said selected medium and access to said media by said data transfer elements is restricted to selected media having at least one particular unique identifier stored in said medium cartridge memory.

17. The library of claim 16 further comprising:

a library controller directing movement of said media to and from one of said set of slots to and from one of said sets of data transfer elements assigned to a same of said partitions.

18. The library of claim 16 wherein each of said data transfer elements comprise memory storage storing a list of at least one unique media identifiers that data transfer elements in a particular data transfer element'"'"'s partition are allowed to access.

19. The library of claim 16 wherein a selected medium is ejected from a data transfer element receiving said selected medium in response to said unique identifier in cartridge memory of said selected medium not being one of said at least one particular unique identifier.

20. The library of claim 16 wherein a data transfer element receiving a selected medium without a unique identifier in medium cartridge memory writes a unique identifier associated with a partition of said data transfer element receiving said selected medium to cartridge memory of said selected medium.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein at least one of said media are selected from a group of media consisting of:

media previously assigned a unique identifier, new blank media, media erroneously placed in a partition, media imported into said library, and media imported into a partition.