Disk drive memory
First Claim
1. A disk memory system for storing data files for associated data processing devices comprising:
- a plurality of disk drives;
means for assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of at least two disk drives;
means responsive to a data file being transmitted to said disk memory system from said associated data processing devices for selecting one of said redundancy groups to store said transmitted data file thereon;
means for writing said transmitted data file and redundancy data associated with said transmitted data file in segments across said at least two disk drives in said selected redundancy group;
means for reserving at least one of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said redundancy groups; and
means for identifying one of said at least two disk drives in said subset that fails to function; and
means for switchably connecting one of said backup disk drives in place of said identified failed disk drive.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The disk drive memory of the present invention uses a large plurality of small form factor disk drives to implement an inexpensive, high performance, high reliability disk drive memory that emulates the format and capability of large form factor disk drives. The plurality of disk drives are switchably interconnectable to form redundancy groups of N+M parallel connnected disk drives to store data thereon. The N+M disk drives are used to store the N segments of each data word plus M redundancy segments. In addition, a pool of R backup disk drives is maintained to automatically substitute a replacement disk drive for a disk drive in a redundancy group that fails during operation. The number N of data segments in each data redundancy group can be varied throughout the disk drive memory to thereby match the characteristics of the input data or operational parameters within the disk drive memory. Furthermore, a group of U unassigned disk drives can be maintained as a stock of disk drives that can be powered up as needed and assigned to either a redundancy group or to the pool of backup disk drives.
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Citations
88 Claims
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1. A disk memory system for storing data files for associated data processing devices comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives; means for assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of at least two disk drives; means responsive to a data file being transmitted to said disk memory system from said associated data processing devices for selecting one of said redundancy groups to store said transmitted data file thereon; means for writing said transmitted data file and redundancy data associated with said transmitted data file in segments across said at least two disk drives in said selected redundancy group; means for reserving at least one of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said redundancy groups; and means for identifying one of said at least two disk drives in said subset that fails to function; and means for switchably connecting one of said backup disk drives in place of said identified failed disk drive. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of storing data files for data processing devices on an associated disk memory system that includes a plurality of disk drives comprising the steps of:
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assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of at least two disk drives; selecting, in response to one of said processing devices transmitting a data file to said disk memory system, one of said redundancy groups to store said transmitted data file thereon; writing said transmitted data file and redundancy data associated with said transmitted data file across said at least two disk drives of said selected redundancy group; reserving at least one of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, said backup disk drives shared in common by said redundancy groups; identifying one of said disk drives in said subset that fails to function; and switchably connecting one of said backup disk drives in place of said identified failed disk drive. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 47, 48)
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33. A disk memory system for storing data files that are accessible by associated data processing devices comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives for storing data thereon; means for transferring data between said disk memory system and said associated data processing devices; means for assigning a subset of said disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each said redundancy group containing n+m disk drives, where n is a positive integer; means for segmenting each data file received from said associated data processing devices via said transferring means into n segments of data, where n is a positive integer greater than 1; means responsive to said segmenting means for generating m segments of data redundancy information for said segmented data file, where m is a positive integer greater than 1; means for selecting one of said redundancy groups to store said received data file and said generated redundancy information thereon; means for switchably interconnecting said n+m disk drives in said selected redundancy group with said segmenting means to write said n segments of data plus said m segments of redundancy data on to said n+m disk drives of said selected redundancy group; means for reserving r of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, where r is a positive integer, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said redundancy groups; means for identifying one of said n+m disk drives that fails to function; means for switchably connecting one of said r backup disk drives in place of said identified failed disk drive; means for reconstructing the segment of said data file written on said identified failed disk drive, using said associated redundancy data; and means for writing said reconstructed segment of said data file on to said one backup disk drive.
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34. In a disk memory system including a plurality of disk drives a method of storing data files that are accessible by associated data processing devices comprising the steps of:
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transferring data between said disk memory system and said associated data processing devices; segmenting each data file received from said associated data processing devices via said transferring means into n segments of data, where n is a positive integer greater than 1; generating m segments of data redundancy information for said segmented data file, where m is a positive integer greater than 1; assigning a subset of said plurality of disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each said redundancy group containing n+m disk drives; switchably interconnecting said n+m disk drives in one of said redundancy groups with said segmenting means to write said n segments of said received data file plus said m segments of redundancy data on to said n+m disk drives of said one redundancy group; reserving r of said plurality of disk drives as backup disk drives, where r is a positive integer, which backup disk drives are shared in common by said redundancy groups; identifying the one of said disk drives in said subset that fails to function; switchably connecting one of said backup disk drives in place of said identified failed disk drive; reconstructing the segment of said data file written on said identified failed disk drive, using said associated redundancy data; and writing said reconstructed segment of said data file on to said one backup disk drive.
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35. A disk memory system for emulating a large form factor disk drive to store data files that are accessible by associated data processing devices comprising:
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a plurality of small form factor disk drives for storing data thereon; means for assigning a subset of said disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each said redundancy group including n+m of said plurality of disk drives, where n and m are both positive integers greater than 1; means for segmenting each data file received from said associated data processing devices into n segments of data; means responsive to said segmenting means for generating m segments of data redundancy information for said segmented data file; and means for switchably interconnecting said n+m disk drives of one of said redundancy groups with said segmenting means to write said n segments of said received data file plus said m segments of redundancy data on to said n+m selected disk drives of said selected redundancy group. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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49. In a disk memory system a method of emulating a large form factor disk drive using a plurality of small form factor disk drives to store data files that are accessible by associated data processing devices comprising the steps of:
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assigning a subset of said disk drives into at least two redundancy groups, each of said redundancy groups containing n+m disk drives, where both n and m are positive integers greater than 1; selecting one of said redundancy groups; segmenting each data file received from said associated data processing devices into n segments of data; generating m segments of data redundancy information for said segmented data file; and switchably interconnecting said n+m disk drives of one of said redundancy groups with said segmenting means to write said n segments of said received data file plus said m segments of redundancy data on to said n+m disk drives of said one redundancy group. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62)
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63. A disk memory system for storing data files for one or more associated data processing devices comprising:
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a plurality of disk drives; means for assigning a subset of said plurality of said disk drives to at least two redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of n+m disk drives, where n and m are both positive integers greater than 1; means responsive to a data file being transmitted to said disk drive memory from one of said associated data processing devices for segmenting said transmitted data file into n equal segments; means for generating m redundancy segments using said n segments of said transmitted data file; and means for writing said n data segments and said m redundancy segments on one of said redundancy groups. - View Dependent Claims (64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75)
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76. In a disk memory system including a plurality of disk drives a method of storing data files for one or more associated data processing devices comprising the steps of:
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assigning a subset of said plurality of said disk drives to at least two redundancy groups, each redundancy group consisting of n+m disk drives, where n and m are both positive integers greater than 1; segmenting, in response to a data file being transmitted to said disk drive memory from one of said associated data processing devices, said transmitted data file into n equal segments. generating m redundancy segments using said n segments of said transmitted data file; and writing said n data segments and said m redundancy segments on one of said redundancy groups. - View Dependent Claims (77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88)
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Specification