Suspend-to-disk system for removable hard drive
First Claim
1. A method for performing suspend-to-disk (S2D) state for a first computer data processing system characterized by a central processing unit, a system memory, a permanent data storage including a disk and control means for reading and writing data from and to said disk, respectively, bus system interconnecting said central processing unit, said system memory, and said permanent data storage, wherein instructions are recorded on said disk of said permanent data storage in sector locations thereon determined by a partition table stored on said disk, the method comprising the steps of:
- identifying said partition sector of said disk;
writing a copy of said partition table stored in said partition sector to a S2D partition of said disk;
altering said partition table stored in said partition sector of said disk to designate said S2D partition as the bootable partition; and
including in said S2D partition a resume-from-disk (RFD) routine to write the partition table stored in the S2D partition back to said partition sector of said disk and copying the contents of said S2D partition back to system memory.
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Method and apparatus for enabling a suspend-to-disk (S2D) state to be associated with a hard disk to which the operations of a personal computer (PC) have been suspended, rather than with the PC itself. In a preferred embodiment, responsive to initiation of an S2D operation, a partition table stored in a partition sector of the hard disk is copied to a known address within an S2D partition of the hard disk and the copy of the partition table stored in the partition sector is altered such that the S2D partition, rather than a native operating system (OS) partition, is designated as the active partition. The S2D operations continue in a conventional manner, with the state of the PC being saved to the hard disk, at which point the PC is powered off. When the PC is subsequently powered back on, the PC boots up from the S2D partition. A resume-from-disk (RFD) program writes the copy of the partition table previously stored in the S2D partition back to the partition sector and then restores the state of the PC.
36 Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method for performing suspend-to-disk (S2D) state for a first computer data processing system characterized by a central processing unit, a system memory, a permanent data storage including a disk and control means for reading and writing data from and to said disk, respectively, bus system interconnecting said central processing unit, said system memory, and said permanent data storage, wherein instructions are recorded on said disk of said permanent data storage in sector locations thereon determined by a partition table stored on said disk, the method comprising the steps of:
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identifying said partition sector of said disk; writing a copy of said partition table stored in said partition sector to a S2D partition of said disk; altering said partition table stored in said partition sector of said disk to designate said S2D partition as the bootable partition; and including in said S2D partition a resume-from-disk (RFD) routine to write the partition table stored in the S2D partition back to said partition sector of said disk and copying the contents of said S2D partition back to system memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for enabling a suspend-to-disk (S2D) state of a first computer having system memory to follow a hard disk to which operations of said first computer have been suspended, said hard disk comprising a partition sector and an S2D partition, the method comprising:
responsive to an S2D command; writing a copy of a partition table stored in said partition sector to said S2D partition, said partition table comprising a plurality of partition table entries corresponding to a plurality of partitions of said hard disk and designating one of said hard disk partitions as an active partition; altering a copy of said partition table to designate said S2D partition as said active partition; overwriting said partition table stored in said partition sector with said altered partition table copy; copying contents of said first computer system memory to said hard disk; and powering down said first computer. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. Apparatus for enabling a suspend-to-disk (S2D) state of a first computer to follow a hard disk to which operations of said first computer have been suspended, said hard disk comprising a partition sector and an S2D partition, the apparatus comprising:
means responsive to an S2D command for; writing a copy of a partition table stored in said partition sector to said S2D partition, said partition table comprising a plurality of partition table entries corresponding to a plurality of partitions of said hard disk and designating one of said hard disk partitions as an active partition; altering a copy of said partition table to designate said S2D partition as said active partition; and overwriting said partition table stored in said partition sector with said altered partition table copy. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. Apparatus for enabling a suspend-to-disk (S2D) state of a first computer having system memory to follow a hard disk to which operations of said first computer have been suspended, said hard disk comprising a partition sector and an S2D partition, the apparatus comprising:
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means for writing a copy of a partition table stored in said partition sector to said S2D partition, said partition table comprising a plurality of partition table entries corresponding to a plurality of partitions of said hard disk and designating one of said hard disk partitions as an active partition; means for altering a copy of said partition table to designate said S2D partition as said active partition; means for overwriting said partition table stored in said partition sector with said altered partition table copy; means for copying contents of said first computer system memory to said hard disk; and means for powering down said first computer. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. Apparatus for enabling a suspend-to-disk (S2D) state of a first computer to follow a hard disk to which operations of said first computer have been suspended, said hard disk comprising a partition sector and an S2D partition, the apparatus comprising:
means responsive to an S2D command for; writing a copy of a partition table stored in said partition sector to said S2D partition, said partition table comprising a plurality of partition table entries corresponding to a plurality of partitions of said hard disk and designating one of said hard disk partitions as an active partition; altering a copy of said partition table to designate said S2D partition as said active partition; and overwriting said partition table stored in said partition sector with said altered partition table copy; and means responsive to a resume-from-disk (RFD) command for booting a second computer in which said hard disk is currently installed from said active partition and overwriting said altered partition table copy stored in said partition sector with said partition table copy stored in said S2D partition. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. Apparatus for enabling a suspend-to-disk (S2D) state of a first computer having system memory to follow a hard disk to which operations of said first computer have been suspended, said hard disk comprising s partition sector and an S2D partition, the apparatus comprising:
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means for writing a copy of a partition table stored in said partition sector to said S2D partition, said partition table comprising s plurality of partition table entries corresponding to a plurality of partitions of said hard disk and designating one of said hard disk partitions as an active partition; means for altering a copy of said partition table to designate said S2D partition as said active partition; means for overwriting said partition table stored in said partition sector with said altered partition table copy; means for copying contents of said first computer system memory to said hard disk; means for powering down said first computer; and logic executable by a processor of a second computer in which said hard disk is installed during a resume-from-disk (RFD) operation responsive to an RFD command for booting said second computer in which said hard disk is installed during said RFD operation from said active partition and overwriting said altered partition table copy stored in said partition sector with said partition table copy stored in said S2D partition. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34)
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Specification