Method, system and computer program product for recovery of formatting in repair of bad sectors in disk drives

• US 20070168700A1
• Filed: 11/15/2005
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Langford, John, Dickenson, Marc, Patel, Atit
• Granted Patent: US 7,475,278 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata

Abstract

A method for correcting a formatting error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive is disclosed. An error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive is discovered, and a second formatting is extracted from a second hard disk drive storing second data. The erroneous first formatting is replaced with a modification of the second formatting, and first data is stored in the first hard disk drive with the modification of the second formatting. The first data is different from the second data.

Claims

1. A method for correcting a formatting error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive of a data processing system, said method comprising:

discovering an error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive of a data processing system;

extracting from a second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data a second formatting;

replacing said erroneous first formatting with a modification of said second formatting; and

storing first data in said first hard disk drive with said modification of said second formatting, wherein said first data is different from said second data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a copy of a boot sector of said second hard disk drive.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of generating a copy of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit in an I/O interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of discovering an error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive further comprises:

verifying a first header in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first partition table offset in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first validity of a partition name in said first hard disk drive; and

verifying a first partition table size in said first hard disk drive.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of replacing said erroneous first formatting with said modification of said second formatting further comprises the step of modifying said second formatting of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive to construct said modification of said first formatting of said first hard disk drive.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of extracting from said second hard disk drive storing second data said second formatting further comprises extracting a second header, a second partition table offset, a second partition name, and a second partition table size from said second flash memory.

8. A system for correcting a formatting error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive of a data processing system, said system comprising:

means for discovering an error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive of a data processing system;

means for extracting from a second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data a second formatting;

means for replacing said erroneous first formatting with a modification of said second formatting; and

means for storing first data in said first hard disk drive with said modification of said second formatting, wherein said first data is different from said second data.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising means for generating a copy of a boot sector of said second hard disk drive.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said means for generating a copy of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive further comprises means for copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said means for copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit further comprises means for copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit in an I/O interface.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein said means for discovering an error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive further comprises:

means for verifying a first header in said first hard disk drive;

means for verifying a first partition table offset in said first hard disk drive;

means for verifying a first validity of a partition name in said first hard disk drive; and

means for verifying a first partition table size in said first hard disk drive.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein said means for replacing said erroneous first formatting with said modification of said second formatting further comprises means for modifying said second formatting of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive to construct said modification of said first formatting of said first hard disk drive.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein said means for extracting from said second hard disk drive storing second data said second formatting further comprises means for extracting a second header, a second partition table offset, a second partition name, and a second partition table size from said second flash memory.

15. A machine-readable medium having a plurality of instructions processable by a machine embodied therein, wherein said plurality of instructions, when processed by said machine, causes said machine to perform a method for correcting a formatting error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive of a data processing system, comprising:

discovering an error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive of a data processing system;

extracting from a second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data a second formatting;

replacing said erroneous first formatting with a modification of said second formatting; and

storing first data in said first hard disk drive with said modification of said second formatting, wherein said first data is different from said second data.

16. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, said method further comprising the step of generating a copy of a boot sector of said second hard disk drive.

17. The machine-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the step of generating a copy of said boot sector of second hard disk drive further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein said step of copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit in an I/O interface.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein said step of discovering an error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive further comprises:

verifying a first header in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first partition table offset in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first validity of a partition name in said first hard disk drive; and

verifying a first partition table size in said first hard disk drive.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein said step of replacing said erroneous first formatting with said modification of said second formatting further comprises the step of modifying said second formatting of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive to construct said modification of said first formatting of said first hard disk drive.