SEMI-PERSISTENT RELOCATABLE RAM-BASED VIRTUAL FLOPPY DISK METHOD

• US 20080082810A1
• Filed: 10/31/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: CEPULIS, Darren, JONES, Curtis, DUPREE, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 7,822,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

The invention is a method and related structure for providing operating system drivers during installation of the operating system, where those operating system drivers are provided by way of a virtual disk drive. Basic input/output system (BIOS) routines are adapted to support showing these operating system drivers as residing on a virtual disk drive within the system. The operating system drivers are stored in the unreserved ROM space of the computer. Further, multiple floppy images are stored in the ROM, and the BIOS is adapted to show only the floppy image appropriate for the operating system to be installed. The virtual drive contents may be those operating system drivers stored in the unreserved ROM, but also may be physically stored in RAM.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

storing the operating system drivers on a read only memory (ROM) within the computer system; and

copying at least one of the operating system drivers from a virtual disk drive of the computer system during the operating system installation.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein storing the operating system drivers on the ROM within the computer system further comprises storing the operating system drivers on the ROM along with a basic input output system (BIOS).

3. The method as defined in claim 1 wherein storing operating system drivers on the ROM within the computer further comprises:

storing on the ROM a first set of operating system drivers operable with a first operating system; and

storing on the ROM a second set of operating system drivers operable with a second operating system.

4. The method as defined in claim 3 further comprising having only operating system drivers operable with the operating system to be installed available for copying from the virtual disk drive.

5. A computer system comprising:

a CPU;

a main memory array coupled to the CPU;

an expansion bus coupled to the CPU;

a read only memory (ROM) array coupled to the secondary expansion bus, the ROM array stores operating system drivers; and

the computer system is configured to make the operating system drivers appear to reside on a virtual floppy drive for copying during loading of an operating system for the computer system.

6. The computer system as defined in claim 5 wherein the ROM array also stores basic input output system (BIOS) firmware.

7. The computer system as defined in claim 6 wherein the BIOS firmware, when invoked for disk services, is adapted to make the operating system drivers appear to reside on the virtual floppy drive.

8. The computer system as defined in claim 5 further comprising:

said ROM array stores a first set of operating system drivers for a first operating system;

said ROM array stores a second set of operating system drivers for a second operating system; and

the computer system is configured to make only one of the first and second set of operating system drivers available for copying from the virtual floppy drive during loading of the operating system for the computer system.

9. A method comprising:

storing operating system drivers on a read only memory (ROM);

informing a basic input output system (BIOS) of an operating system type to be installed;

making available during the loading of the operating system the operating system drivers stored on the ROM appropriate for the operating system type to be installed;

installing the operating system; and

copying at the appropriate time during the installing of the operating system at least on of the operating system drivers from a virtual floppy drive.

10. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein storing operating system drivers on the ROM further comprises:

storing a first set of operating system drivers operable with a first operating system; and

storing a second set of operating system drivers operable with a second operating system.

11. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein informing the BIOS of the operating system type to be installed further comprises:

selecting the operating system type to be installed on a BIOS setup screen; and

setting an environment variable in a non-volatile random access memory (RAM) based on the selecting step that indicates the operating system type to be installed.

12. The method as defined in claim 11 wherein making available the operating system drivers stored on the ROM further comprises:

using BIOS programs to access the operating system drivers stored on the ROM;

referring, by the BIOS programs, to the environment variable in non-volatile RAM; and

making one of the first and second set of operating system drivers available on the virtual floppy drive by the BIOS program based on a state of the environment variable in non-volatile RAM.

13. A method of providing operating system drivers during an operating system installation on a computer system, the method comprising:

storing a first set of operating system drivers operable with a first operating system in a read only memory (ROM) of the computer system;

storing a second set operating system drivers operable with a second operating system in the ROM; and

copying at least one of the operating system drivers from a virtual disk drive of the computer system during the operating system installation.

14. The method of providing operating system drivers as defined in claim 13 further comprising:

selecting on a basic input output system (BIOS) setup screen one of the first and second sets of operating systems, a selected system, to be installed on the computer system; and

having only operating system drivers operable with selected system, selected drivers, available for copying from the virtual drive.

15. The method of providing operating system drivers as defined in claim 14 further comprising:

requesting disk services to a disk drive name that does not physically reside in the computer system by;

invoking interrupt 13h BIOS services directed to the disk drive name that does not physically reside in the computer system; and

returning file names for the selected drivers by the interrupt 13h BIOS services as if the selected drivers resided on the disk drive name that does not physically reside in the computer system.

16. A method of providing operating system drivers during an operating system installation on a computer system, the method comprising:

storing a first floppy image having a first set of operating system drivers operable with a first operating system, the first floppy image stored in a read only memory (ROM) of the computer system;

storing a second floppy image having a second set of operating system drivers operable with a second operating system, the second floppy image stored in the ROM; and

providing one of the first and second floppy images as a virtual floppy drive during the operating system installation.

17. The method of providing operating system drivers as defined in claim 16 further comprising:

selecting on a basic input output system (BIOS) setup screen one of the first and second sets of operating systems, a selected system, to be installed on the computer system; and

having only the floppy image having operating system drivers operable with selected system, a selected floppy image, available on the virtual floppy drive.

18. The method of providing operating system drivers as defined in claim 17 wherein providing one of the first and second floppy images as a virtual floppy drive during the operating system installation further comprising:

requesting disk services to a disk drive name that does not physically reside in the computer system by;

invoking interrupt 13h BIOS services directed to the disk drive name that does not physically reside in the computer system; and

returning file names in the selected floppy image by the interrupt 13h BIOS services as if the selected floppy image resided on the disk drive name that does not physically reside in the computer system.