System for computer recovery using removable high capacity media

• US 6,317,845 B1
• Filed: 01/07/2000
• Issued: 11/13/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Iomega Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Davidson, Troy Taylor, McBride, Stephen Larry, Thomas, Trent Mark, Meyer, George Raymond, Teleki, Stefan A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoleil, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott T.
• Application Number:
  US09/479,778
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: 714/23, 714/10, 714/36, 713/2, 707/202
• US Class Current: 714/23
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4406 Loading of operating system

Abstract

A computer recovery system provided on a removable high capacity disk. In the event that a user encounters an abnormal operating condition, the user inserts the removable high capacity disk into the computer and restarts the computer. The computer boots either directly from the removable high capacity disk or from a floppy disk which transfers control to the removable high capacity disk. The removable high capacity disk includes all of the files necessary to load the computer operating system and launch the graphical user interface of the operating system such that the user is provided with a familiar operating environment. The removable high capacity disk also includes a suite of software recovery software which attempt to ascertain and correct the cause of the abnormal operating condition to return the computer system to a normal operating condition. In the event the recovery system cannot correct the cause of the abnormal operating condition, the user may continue working with files located on the hard disk within the computer or perform a restore operation from an archive.

Claims

1. In a computer system comprising a processor, a high capacity removable media drive, non-removable storage media and an operating system that includes an operating environment which provides a user with a graphical user interface, said operating system and said graphical user interface being loaded from said non-removable storage media under normal operating conditions, a method for correcting an abnormal operating condition of said computer system using recovery software stored on removable high capacity media, said removable high capacity media comprising a subset of a total number of components of said operating system, said method comprising:

inserting said removable high capacity media into said high capacity removable media drive upon encountering said abnormal operating condition;

restarting said computer system from said removable high capacity media such that said operating system and said graphical user interface are loaded from said removable high capacity media;

launching said recovery software to rectify said abnormal operating condition upon successfully loading said graphical user interface;

determining if said abnormal operating condition persists in said computer system;

restoring files to said non-removable media from an archive if said abnormal operating condition persists; and

reinstalling said operating system to said non-removable media if no archive exists.

2. The method according to claim 1, said high capacity removable media drive being bootable, wherein restarting said computer system comprises executing bootstrap files located on said removable high capacity media.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising restarting said computer system from said non-removable storage media after rectifying said abnormal operating condition.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said operating system comprises a multi-threaded, multi-tasking operating system running in at least a 32 -bit flat memory model.

5. In a computer system comprising a processor, a high capacity removable media drive, non-removable storage media and an operating system that includes an operating environment which provides a user with a graphical user interface, said operating system and said graphical user interface being loaded from said non-removable storage media under normal operating conditions, a method for correcting an abnormal operating condition of said computer system using recovery software stored on removable high capacity media, said removable high capacity media comprising a subset of a total number of components of said operating system, said method comprising:

inserting said removable high capacity media into said high capacity removable media drive upon encountering said abnormal operating condition;

restarting said computer system from said removable high capacity media such that said operating system and said graphical user interface are loaded from said removable high capacity media; and

launching said recovery software to rectify said abnormal operating condition upon successfully loading said graphical user interface;

said computer system further comprising a bootable floppy drive, and wherein restarting said computer system comprises;

executing bootstrap files located on a bootable floppy disk, said bootable floppy disk having a lower capacity than said removable high capacity media;

loading software drivers to gain access to said high capacity removable media drive;

changing a current drive letter or a current volume label of said high capacity removable media drive to a modified drive letter or a modified volume label, as necessary; and

executing an operating system instruction to continue loading of said operating system and said graphical user interface from said removable high capacity media.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein changing said drive letter or said volume label comprises:

identifying a bus, adapter and drive ID number of said high capacity removable media drive;

identifying said current drive letter and said current volume label of said high capacity removable media drive; and

adjusting operating system data, initialization files and registry information to indicate said high capacity removable media drive by said modified drive letter or said modified volume label.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

determining if said modified drive letter identifies another drive in said computer system; and

adjusting said operating system data, said initialization files and said registry information to change said another drive to a drive letter not used by said operating system.

8. In a computer system comprising a processor, a high capacity removable media drive, non-removable storage media and an operating system that includes an operating environment which provides a user with a graphical user interface, said operating system and said graphical user interface being loaded from said non-removable storage media under normal operating conditions, a method for correcting an abnormal operating condition of said computer system using recovery software stored on removable high capacity media, said removable high capacity media comprising a subset of a total number of components of said operating system, said method comprising:

inserting said removable high capacity media into said high capacity removable media drive upon encountering said abnormal operating condition;

restarting said computer system from said removable high capacity media such that said operating system and said graphical user interface are loaded from said removable high capacity media; and

launching said recovery software to rectify said abnormal operating condition upon successfully loading said graphical user interface;

said removable high capacity media being partitioned, said method further comprising presenting said partitioned removable high capacity media to said operating system as non-partitioned media by performing the following;

determining if said partitioned removable high capacity media is valid, and if said partitioned removable high capacity media is not valid, not presenting said removable high capacity media to said operating system, and if said removable high capacity media is valid then;

calculating an offset from a beginning of said removable high capacity media to a beginning of a desired partition on said removable high capacity media to be accessed;

for each request by said operating system to read or write to a location in a volume of said removable high capacity media, modifying said request by adding said offset to said request to create a modified request; and

determining a type of request by said operating system.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said determining a type of request comprises:

determining if said request is to read data at a beginning of said volume, and if so, performing a read operation and modifying said data to reflect a format of said non-partitioned media as it passed to said operating system;

determining if said request is to write data to the beginning of said volume, and if so, modifying said request to reflect a format of said partitioned media and performing a write operation;

determining if said request is for user data, and if so, performing a read or write operation using said modified request; and

determining if said request is for a media size, and if so, returning to said operating system a size of said partitioned removable high capacity media.

10. An apparatus for recovering from an abnormal operating condition in a computer system having a non-removable media, comprising:

a processor;

a high capacity removable media drive having a high capacity removable media;

means for loading an operating system from said high capacity removable media, said operating system providing an operating environment that includes a graphical user interface;

means for rectifying said abnormal operating condition to return said computer system to a normal operating condition;

means for determining if said abnormal operating condition persists in said computer system;

means for restoring files to said non-removable media from an archive; and

means for reinstalling said operating system to said non-removable media.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said high capacity removable media drive is bootable, and said loading means performs a bootstrap process by executing bootstrap files located on said removable high capacity media.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said operating system comprises a multi-threaded, multi-tasking operating system running in at least a 32 -bit flat memory model.

13. An apparatus for recovering from an abnormal operating condition in a computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a high capacity removable media drive having removable high capacity media;

means for loading an operating system from said high capacity removable media drive, said operating system providing an operating environment that includes a graphical user interface; and

means for rectifying said abnormal operating condition to return said computer system to a normal operating condition;

said computer system further comprising;

a bootable floppy drive;

means for transferring control of a bootstrap process from said floppy drive to said high capacity removable media drive; and

means for changing a current drive letter or a current volume label of said high capacity removable media drive to a modified drive letter or a modified volume label, as necessary,

wherein said loading means initially executes bootstrap files located on a bootable floppy disk, and continues execution of bootstrap files and loading of said operating system and said graphical user interface from said removable high capacity media.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein changing means identifies a bus, adapter and drive ID number for said high capacity removable media drive, identifies said current drive letter and said current volume label of said high capacity removable media drive, and adjusts operating system data, initialization files and registry information to indicate said high capacity removable media drive by said modified drive letter or said modified volume label.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14, further comprising means for determining if said modified drive letter is assigned to another drive by said operating system,

wherein said changing means further adjusts said operating system data, said initialization files and said registry information to change said another drive to a drive letter not in use by the operating system.

16. An apparatus for recovering from an abnormal operating condition in a computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a high capacity removable media drive having removable high capacity media;

means for loading an operating system from said high capacity removable media drive, said operating system providing an operating environment that includes a graphical user interface; and

means for rectifying said abnormal operating condition to return said computer system to a normal operating condition;

said removable high capacity media being partitioned, said apparatus further comprising means for presenting said partitioned removable high capacity media to said operating system as non-partitioned media,

wherein said presenting means determines if said partitioned removable high capacity media is valid, and if said partitioned removable high capacity media is not valid, said presenting means does not present said removable high capacity media to said operating system.

17. The apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising:

means for calculating an offset from a beginning of said removable high capacity media to a beginning of a desired partition on said removable high capacity media to be accessed;

means for modifying a request by said operating system to read or write to a location in a volume of said removable high capacity media by adding said offset to said request; and

means for determining a type of request by said operating system.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein said means for determining a type of request determines if said request is to read data at a beginning of said volume, and if so, performing a read operation and modifying said data to reflect a format of said non-partitioned media as it passed to said operating system;

determines if said request is to write data to the beginning of said volume, and if so, modifying said request to reflect a format of said partitioned media and performing a write operation;

determines if said request is for user data, and if so, performing a read or write operation using said modified request; and

determines if said request is for a media size, and if so, returning to said operating system a size of said partitioned removable high capacity media.

19. An apparatus for recovering from an abnormal operating condition in a computer system having a non-removable media, comprising:

a processor;

a high capacity removable media drive for a high capacity removable media;

an operating system which is loaded from said high capacity removable media by said processor, said operating system providing an operating environment that includes a graphical user interface;

a system recovery application which rectifies said abnormal operating condition to return said computer system to a normal operating condition;

an error determination application which determines if said abnormal operating condition persists in said computer system;

a sequential access device which is provided to restore files to said non-removable media from an archive; and

a random access device is provided to reinstall said operating system to said non-removable media from removable media.

20. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said high capacity removable media drive is bootable, and an operating system bootstrap process is executed by executing bootstrap files located on said removable high capacity media.

21. The apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said operating system comprises a multi-threaded, multi-tasking operating system running in at least a 32-bit flat memory model.

22. An apparatus for recovering from an abnormal operating condition in a computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a high capacity removable media drive having high capacity removable media;

an operating system which is loaded from said high capacity removable media drive by said processor, said operating system providing an operating environment that includes a graphical user interface; and

a system recovery application which rectifies said abnormal operating condition to return said computer system to a normal operating condition;

said computer system further comprising;

a bootable floppy drive for a floppy disk having bootstrap files stored thereon;

a control application which transfers control of a bootstrap process from said floppy drive to said high capacity removable media drive; and

a drive letter assignment application which changes a current drive letter or a current volume label of said high capacity removable media drive to a modified drive letter or a modified volume label, as necessary,

wherein said bootstrap files are initially executed from bootable floppy disk, and said control application transfers control of said bootstrap process such that execution of bootstrap files and loading of said operating system and said graphical user interface are performed from said high capacity removable media.

23. The apparatus according to claim 22, wherein said control application identifies a bus, adapter and drive ID number for said high capacity removable media drive, identifies said current drive letter and said current volume label of said high capacity removable media drive, and adjusts operating system data, initialization files and registry information to indicate said high capacity removable media drive by said modified drive letter or said modified volume label set by said drive letter assignment application.

24. The apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said drive letter assignment application determines if said modified drive letter is assigned to another drive by said operating system and, if so, further adjusts said operating system data, said initialization files and said registry information to change said another drive to a drive letter not in use by the operating system.

25. An apparatus for recovering from an abnormal operating condition in a computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a high capacity removable media drive having removable high capacity media;

an operating system which is loaded from said high capacity removable media drive by said processor, said operating system providing an operating environment that includes a graphical user interface; and

a system recovery application which rectifies said abnormal operating condition to return said computer system to a normal operating condition;

said removable high capacity media being partitioned, said apparatus further comprising a presentation application which presents said partitioned removable high capacity media to said operating system as non-partitioned media.

26. The apparatus according to claim 25, further comprising:

an offset calculation application for calculating an offset from a beginning of said removable high capacity media to a beginning of a desired partition on said removable high capacity media to be accessed;

a request modification application which modifies a request by said operating system to read or write to a location in a volume of said removable high capacity media by adding said offset to said request; and

a request type determination application which determines a type of request by said operating system.

27. The apparatus according to claim 26, wherein said request type determination application determines if said request is to read data at a beginning of said volume, and if so, performs a read operation and modifies said data to reflect a format of said non-partitioned media as it passed to said operating system;

determines if said request is to write data to the beginning of said volume, and if so, modifies said request to reflect a format of said partitioned media and performs a write operation;

determines if said request is for user data, and if so, performs a read or write operation using said modified request; and

determines if said request is for a media size, and if so, returns to said operating system a size of said partitioned removable high capacity media.