SOLID STATE DRIVE EMERGENCY PRE-BOOT APPLICATION PROVIDING EXPANDED DATA RECOVERY FUNCTION

• US 20150033065A1
• Filed: 10/07/2013
• Published: 01/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seagate Technology LLC (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: LSI Corporation (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Canepa, Timothy, Baryudin, Leonid
• Granted Patent: US 9,329,931 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1008 in individual solid state devices G06F11/1004 takes precedence

Abstract

An apparatus includes a non-volatile memory and a controller. The non-volatile memory includes a user area and a non-user area. The user area is generally enabled to store and retrieve data in a logical block address space of a host. The non-user area stores a failure-specific recovery routine. The controller may be communicatively coupled to the non-volatile memory. The controller is generally enabled, when operationally coupled to the host, (i) to respond to host commands to read and to write data into the user area of the non-volatile memory and (ii) upon detection of a predefined failure of a controller boot process, to respond to host read requests by returning the failure-specific recovery routine stored in the non-user area of the non-volatile memory.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a non-volatile memory comprising (i) a user area enabled to store and retrieve data in a logical block address space of a host and (ii) a non-user area storing a failure-specific recovery routine; and

a controller communicatively coupled to the non-volatile memory, the controller enabled, when operationally coupled to said host, (i) to respond to host commands to read and to write data into the user area of the non-volatile memory and (ii) upon detection of a predefined failure of a controller boot process, to respond to host read requests by returning the failure-specific recovery routine stored in the non-user area of the non-volatile memory.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said failure-specific recovery routine, when executed by said host, enables said host to perform an enhanced data recovery operation.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the failure-specific recovery routine is stored in a root area of the non-volatile memory.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the root area of the non-volatile memory is not accessible to the host via the logical block address space.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the non-volatile memory and the controller are part of a solid state drive (SSD).

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the failure-specific recovery routine comprises one or more portions that are loaded into the host according to a predefined boot procedure.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the failure-specific recovery routine, when executed by said host, performs at least one of directing a user in performing a system recovery operation and informing said user of options if data recovery is not successful.

8. A method of recovering from a boot failure in a solid-state drive (SSD) comprising:

partitioning a non-volatile storage medium of the SSD into (i) a user area enabled to store and retrieve data in a logical block address space of a host and (ii) a non-user area enabled to store one or more failure-specific recovery routines;

upon successful completion of a boot process of the SSD, responding to host commands to read and to write data into the user area of the non-volatile storage medium using a controller communicatively coupled to the non-volatile storage medium; and

upon detection of a predefined failure of a controller boot process, responding to an initial host read request by returning at least a portion of the failure-specific recovery routine stored in the non-user area of the non-volatile storage medium.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

executing the failure-specific recovery routine on said host, wherein the failure-specific recovery routine performs at least one of directing a user in performing a system recovery operation and informing said user of options if data recovery is not successful.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the step of responding to the initial host read request by returning at least a portion of the failure-specific recovery routine stored in the non-user area of the non-volatile storage medium further comprises:

transferring a master boot record (MBR) bootstrap code to said host in response to the initial host read request;

transferring execution control to the MBR bootstrap code on the host to load one or more second stage boot loaders from the non-user area of the non-volatile storage medium;

executing the one or more second stage boot loaders on the host 105 to retrieve an emergency pre-boot application (EPBA) from the non-user area of the non-volatile storage medium; and

transferring execution control to the EPBA on the host.

11. A non-volatile computer readable storage medium comprising:

a user area enabled to store and retrieve data in a logical block address space of a host; and

a non-user area storing a failure-specific recovery routine, wherein when said non-volatile computer readable storage medium is operationally coupled to said host by a controller, upon successful completion of a boot process of the controller, host commands to read and to write data are responded to by the controller using the user area of the non-volatile computer readable storage medium, and upon detection of a predefined failure of the controller boot process, an initial host read request is responded to by the controller by returning at least a portion of the failure-specific recovery routine stored in the non-user area of the non-volatile computer readable storage medium.

12. The non-volatile computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein the failure-specific recovery routine performs at least one of directing a user in performing a system recovery operation using the host and informing said user of options if data recovery is not successful.

13. The non-volatile computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein said non-volatile computer readable storage medium is part of a solid-state disk/drive (SSD).

14. The non-volatile computer readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein said non-volatile computer readable storage medium comprises one or more flash memory die.

15. The non-volatile computer readable storage medium according to claim 14, wherein said non-volatile computer readable storage medium further comprises a portion of read only memory (ROM) embodying a data structure containing the failure-specific recovery routine.