Method of altering a computer operating system to boot and run from protected media
First Claim
1. A method of creating a bootable hard drive image file, comprisingcopying files and configuration information from a fully configured and operational operating system to a hard drive image file;
- copying to said hard drive image file a written disk sector database driver operative to create and maintain a written disk sector database of a predetermined maximum size equal to the size of all read-write files and free space in said hard drive image file;
copying to said hard drive image file a read-only protection driver operative to fail requests to write, delete or change file access attributes of read-only files; and
altering said files and configuration information on said hard drive image file such that the operating system will load said written disk sector database driver and said read-only protection driver during booting.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A modern computer operating system is altered to boot and run from a protected medium such as a CD-ROM. Files and configuration information are copied from a fully configured and operational OS to a hard drive image file. File system filters and device drivers are added that implement an emulated read-write hard disk drive by servicing initial read requests from the image file, and write requests and read requests to previously written data, from a written disk sector database. The OS is altered to load the filters and drivers during boot, and to subsequently run from the emulated read-write hard disk drive. The hard drive image file is then placed on a bootable protected medium.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of creating a bootable hard drive image file, comprising
copying files and configuration information from a fully configured and operational operating system to a hard drive image file; -
copying to said hard drive image file a written disk sector database driver operative to create and maintain a written disk sector database of a predetermined maximum size equal to the size of all read-write files and free space in said hard drive image file;
copying to said hard drive image file a read-only protection driver operative to fail requests to write, delete or change file access attributes of read-only files; and
altering said files and configuration information on said hard drive image file such that the operating system will load said written disk sector database driver and said read-only protection driver during booting. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of altering the operating system of a computer to boot and run from a protected medium, comprising:
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creating a hard drive image file;
copying files and configuration information from a fully configured and operational operating system to said hard drive image file;
copying a written disk sector database driver to said hard drive image file, said written disk sector database driver operative to create and maintain a written disk sector database of a predetermined maximum size equal to the size of all read-write files and free space in said hard drive image file;
copying a read-only protection driver to said hard drive image file, said read-only protection driver operative to fail requests to write, delete, or change file access attributes of read-only files;
altering said files and configuration information on said hard drive image file so that the operating system will load said written disk sector database driver and said read-only protection driver during booting, and placing said hard drive image file on a protected medium. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A protected computer readable medium including hard drive image file and an altered operating system created by altering a fully configured and operational operating system, said altered operating system operative to cause the computer to perform the following steps during booting:
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creating an emulated read-write hard disk drive and attaching said drive to the file system as a physical drive;
creating and maintaining a written disk sector database of a predetermined maximum size equal to the size of all read-write files and free space on said emulated read-write hard disk drive, said written disk sector database operative to store write data directed to said emulated read-write hard disk drive; and
installing a read-only protection file system filter operative to fail requests to write, delete, or change file access attributes of read-only files. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A method of computer disaster recovery, comprising:
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prior to loss of use of a computer system drive, preparing a protected medium containing an altered operating system derived from a fully configured and operational operating system, and including at least one device driver to emulate a read-write hard disk drive; and
following loss of use of said system drive, booting said computer from said protected medium and running said altered operating system on an emulated read-write hard disk drive comprising a written disk sector database of a predetermined size equal to all read-write files and free space on said emulated drive and a protection driver operative to fail requests to write, delete or change the read-only attributes of read-only files on said emulated drive. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of booting and running a computer, whose primary operating system does not natively support running from protected media, from a protected medium, comprising:
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copying said primary operating system files and configuration information to create a duplicate operating system;
creating file system filters and device drivers to emulate a read-write hard disk drive using a hard drive image file on a protected medium and a written disk sector database of a fixed maximum size equal to the size of all read-write files and free space on the emulated read-write hard disk drive;
altering said duplicate operating system to load and execute said file system filters and device drivers;
placing said altered operating system and said file system filters and device drivers on a protected medium; and
booting and running said computer with said altered operating system from said protected medium. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification