Field-operable, stand-alone apparatus for media recovery and regeneration

• US 7,278,051 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2005
• Issued: 10/02/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: MCM Portfolio LLC
• Original Assignee: OnSpec Electronic Incorporated
• Inventors: Jones, Larry Lawson, Venkidu, Arockiyaswamy, Mambakkam, Sreenath
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal; Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US11/075,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20050273648A1
• Time in Patent Office: 938 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6, 714/8, 714/15, 714/42
• US Class Current: 714/6.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata

Abstract

A method for recovering data from corrupted flash media and regenerated damaged flash media have been disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises accessing data on a flash media, searching the data for file indicia corresponding at least one predetermined file type, reading the data based on information in the file indicia, the data including a recovered file, and storing the recovered file on a storage medium. Other embodiments have been claimed and described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing data on a flash media;

searching the data for file indicia corresponding to at least one predetermined file type;

reading the data based on information in the file indicia, the data including a recovered file; and

storing the recovered file on a storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the flash media comprises one of a CompactFlash device, a SmartMedia card, a MultiMediaCard, a Secure Digital card, a Memory Stick-compatible device, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Drive.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the USB Drive comprises a storage device built from at least one of a magnetic medium, a NAND Single Level Cell (SLC) flash, an Assist Gate-AND (AG-AND) flash, and a NAND Multi Level Cell (MLC) flash.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the USB Drive comprises of one or more chips built from at least one of the NAND SLC flash, the AG-AND flash, and the NAND MLC flash.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more chips are cascaded.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage medium comprises one of a CompactFlash device, a SmartMedia card, a MultiMediaCard, a Secure Digital Card, and a Memory Stick-compatible device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the MultiMediaCard is accessible in serial or in parallel and the MultiMediaCard comprises at least one of a Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC), and a MultimediaCard High Speed (MMC HS).

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the Secure Digital Card is accessible in serial or in parallel and the Secure Digital Card comprises at least one of a mini Secure Digital Card (miniSD), a Secure Digital Card High Speed (SD HS), and a Trans Flash.

9. A method comprising:

determining a media type of a flash media;

building a physical-to-logical table mapping physical storage locations to logical storage locations based on a media type of the flash media;

searching the flash media for a file header corresponding to at least one predetermined file type using the physical-to-logical table;

reading data from the flash media based on information in the file header to recover data corresponding to at least one application file from the flash media; and

storing the recovered data on a storage medium.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the flash media comprises one of a CompactFlash device, a SmartMedia card, a MultiMediaCard, a Secure Digital card, a Memory Stick-compatible device, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Drive.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the USB Drive comprises a storage device built from at least one of a magnetic medium, a NAND Single Level Cell (SLC) flash, an Assist Gate-AND (AG-AND) flash, and a NAND Multi Level Cell (MLC) flash.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the USB Drive comprises of one or more chips built from at least one of the NAND SLC flash, the AG-AND flash, and the NAND MLC flash.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the storage medium comprises one of a CompactFlash device, a SmartMedia card, a MultiMediaCard, a Secure Digital Card, and a Memory Stick-compatible device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the MultiMediaCard is accessible in serial or in parallel and the MultiMediaCard comprises at least one of a Reduced Size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC), and a MultimediaCard High Speed (MMC HS).

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the Secure Digital Card is accessible in serial or in parallel and the Secure Digital Card comprises at least one of a mini Secure Digital Card (miniSD), a Secure Digital Card High Speed (SD HS), and a Trans Flash.

16. A method comprising:

determining a media type of a flash media;

identifying a damaged file system component;

employing a lookup table containing file system parameters to rebuild the file system component based on the media type of the flash media to generate rebuild data; and

rewriting a corrupted portion of the flash media with the rebuild data.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the flash media comprises one of a CompactFlash device, a SmartMedia card, a MultiMediaCard, a Secure Digital card, a Memory Stick-compatible device, and a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Drive.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the USB Drive comprises of storage built from at least one of a magnetic medium, a NAND Single Level Cell (SLC) flash, an Assist Gate-AND (AG-AND) flash, and a NAND Multi Level Cell (MLC) flash.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the USB Drive comprises of one or more chips built from at least one of the NAND SLC flash, the AG-AND flash, and the NAND MLC flash.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more chips are cascaded.

21. A method comprising:

determining a media type of a flash media;

identifying a damaged file system component;

employing a lookup table containing file system parameters to rebuild the file system component based on the media type of the flash media to generate rebuild data; and

rewriting a corrupted portion of the flash media with the rebuild data.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the flash media comprises one of a CompactFlash device, a SmartMedia card, a MultiMediaCard, a Secure Digital card, a Memory Stick-compatible device, a NAND Single Level Cell (SLC) flash, an Assist Gate-AND (AG-AND) flash, and a NAND Multi Level Cell (MLC) flash.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the method comprises a cell-phone.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the method comprises a smart phone.