METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROTECTING DATA

• US 20100058066A1
• Filed: 08/25/2009
• Published: 03/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: ASUSTek Computer, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ASUSTek Computer, Inc.
• Inventors: Wang, Chin-Yu
• Application Number:
  US12/547,472
• Publication Number:
  US 20100058066A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/183
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/80 in storage media based on magnetic or optical technology, e.g. disks with sectors preventing unauthorised reproduction or copying of disc-type recordable media G11B20/00

Abstract

A method and a system for protecting data are provided. When a computer system is powered on, a verification code is compared with a predetermined verification code. If the verification code matches the predetermined verification code, an encrypted configuration data stored in a configuration data block of a storage device is decrypted with the verification code to obtain an original configuration data of the storage device. Thereby, data loss is effectively prevented and a data protection mechanism is provided.

Claims

1. A data protection method in a computer system with a storage device having a plurality of blocks and a configuration data block, and the configuration data block stores an encrypted configuration data, the data protection method comprising:

receiving a verification code when the computer system is powered on;

comparing the verification code with a predetermined verification code; and

decrypting the encrypted configuration data in the configuration data block with the verification code to obtain an original configuration data if the verification code matches the predetermined verification code.

2. The data protection method according to claim 1, wherein the step of decrypting the encrypted configuration data with the verification code to obtain the original configuration data comprises:

reading the encrypted configuration data from the storage device;

decrypting the encrypted configuration data with the verification code to obtain the original configuration data;

deleting the encrypted configuration data in the configuration data block; and

writing the original configuration data into the configuration data block.

3. The data protection method according to claim 1, further comprising:

setting an encryption flag to determine whether to start a data protection mechanism.

4. The data protection method according to claim 3, further comprises the following step if the computer system is powered off or enters an interruption mode:

checking the encryption flag;

encrypting the original configuration data in the configuration data block to obtain the encrypted configuration data when the encryption flag is greater than or equal to a specific value;

deleting the original configuration data in the configuration data block; and

writing the encrypted configuration data into the storage device.

5. The data protection method according to claim 4, further comprises the following step if the computer system is powered on, the data protection method comprises:

checking the encryption flag to determine whether the storage device is encrypted;

receiving the verification code to decrypt the encrypted configuration data in the configuration data block when the encryption flag is greater than or equal to the specific value; and

determining that the storage device is not encrypted when the encryption flag is smaller than the specific value.

6. The data protection method according to claim 1, wherein after the step of decrypting the encrypted configuration data in the configuration data block to obtain the original configuration data, the data protection method further comprises:

checking a power state of the computer system when the computer system is started;

executing a power resume procedure when the computer system is started from an interruption mode; and

executing an operating system boot-up procedure when the computer system is started from an off state.

7. The data protection method according to claim 1, wherein the storage device comprises a hard disk.

8. The data protection method according to claim 7, wherein the encrypted configuration data comprises a master boot record (MBR).

9. The data protection method according to claim 1, wherein the verification code comprises one of a password input by a user and a hardware serial number.

10. A data protection system for a computer system, comprising:

a storage device, disposed in the computer system, wherein the storage device comprises a plurality of blocks and a configuration data block, and the configuration data block stores an encrypted configuration data; and

a boot-up module, coupled to the storage device, comprising;

a verification code comparison module, for receiving a verification code and comparing the verification code with a predetermined verification code after the computer system is powered on; and

a decryption module, for decrypting the encrypted configuration data in the configuration data block with the verification code to obtain an original configuration data.

11. The data protection system according to claim 10, wherein the boot-up module further comprises:

an encryption module, for encrypting the original configuration data with the verification code to obtain the encrypted configuration data.

12. The data protection system according to claim 11, further comprising:

an encryption flag, for indicating whether to start a data protection mechanism.

13. The data protection system according to claim 12, wherein the boot-up module further comprises:

a flag checking module, for checking whether the encryption flag is set;

wherein when the computer system is powered on, the flag checking module checks the encryption flag to determine whether the boot-up module needs to decrypt data stored in the configuration data block, and when the computer system is powered off or enters an interruption mode, the flag checking module checks the encryption flag to determine whether the boot-up module needs to encrypt the data stored in the configuration data block.

14. The data protection system according to claim 11, wherein the encryption module further reads the original configuration data from the configuration data block, encrypts the original configuration data to obtain the encrypted configuration data, and writes the encrypted configuration data into the storage device to cover the original configuration data in the configuration data block.

15. The data protection system according to claim 10, wherein the decryption module further reads the encrypted configuration data from the configuration data block, decrypts the encrypted configuration data to obtain the original configuration data, and writes the original configuration data into the storage device to cover the encrypted configuration data in the configuration data block.

16. The data protection system according to claim 10, further comprising:

a power state detection module, connected to the boot-up module, for checking a power state of the computer system when the computer system is started, wherein if the computer system is started from an interruption mode, the power state detection module controls the boot-up module to execute a power resume procedure, and if the computer system is started from an off state, the power state detection module controls the boot-up module to execute an operating system boot-up procedure.

17. The data protection system according to claim 10, wherein the storage device comprises a hard disk.

18. The data protection system according to claim 17, wherein the encrypted configuration data comprises a MBR.

19. The data protection system according to claim 10, wherein the verification code comprises one of a password input by a user and a hardware serial number.

20. The data protection system according to claim 10, wherein the boot-up module comprises a basic input output system (BIOS).