System for transparently compressing data files in a computer system
First Claim
1. A method for maintaining compressed data files on a disk drive in a computer system so that a user may access said data files as if they were uncompressed, said disk drive having a drive letter assigned by an operating system, said operating system storing with said assigned drive letter a device driver pointer to said disk drive, said method comprising:
- compressing and decompressing one or more files on said disk drive with a device driver, said compressing and decompressing device driver having a drive letter assigned by said operating system, said operating system storing with said assigned drive letter for said compressing and decompressing device driver a device driver pointer to said compressing and decompressing device driver; and
swapping said device driver pointer stored with said drive letter assigned to said disk drive and said device driver pointer stored with said drive letter assigned to said compressing and decompressing device driver.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A data compression device driver compresses and decompresses files on a disk drive in a computer system when a user copies files from a drive letter assigned to the disk drive to a drive letter assigned to the data compression device driver. Drive parameter blocks for the disk drive and for the data compression device driver contain the assigned drive letter, disk geometry information, a rebuild flag, and a pointer to the device driver. A swapping means swaps the device driver pointers in the drive parameter blocks corresponding to the disk drive and the data compression device driver. From then on, compressed data files may be accessed transparently by using the drive letter which was originally assigned to the disk drive before swapping, which now refers to the data compression device driver.
151 Citations
7 Claims
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1. A method for maintaining compressed data files on a disk drive in a computer system so that a user may access said data files as if they were uncompressed, said disk drive having a drive letter assigned by an operating system, said operating system storing with said assigned drive letter a device driver pointer to said disk drive, said method comprising:
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compressing and decompressing one or more files on said disk drive with a device driver, said compressing and decompressing device driver having a drive letter assigned by said operating system, said operating system storing with said assigned drive letter for said compressing and decompressing device driver a device driver pointer to said compressing and decompressing device driver; and swapping said device driver pointer stored with said drive letter assigned to said disk drive and said device driver pointer stored with said drive letter assigned to said compressing and decompressing device driver. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for maintaining compressed data files on a disk drive in a computer system so that a user may access said data files as if they were uncompressed, said disk drive having a drive letter assigned by an operating system, said method comprising:
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compressing and decompressing one or more files on said disk drive with a device driver, said compressing and decompressing device driver having a drive letter assigned by said operating system; and swapping said drive letter assigned to said disk drive and said drive letter assigned to said compressing and decompressing device driver.
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Specification