Method, system and computer program product for recovery of formatting in repair of bad sectors in disk drives

• US 7,475,278 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2005
• Issued: 01/06/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Patel, Atit D., Langford, John S., Dickenson, Marc A.
• Primary Examiner(s): LE, DIEU MINH T
• Application Number:
  US11/274,627
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 714/5, 714/6, 714/7, 714/8, 714/2, 711/113, 711/114
• US Class Current: 714/5.11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata

Abstract

A method for correcting a formatting error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive is disclosed. An error in a first formatting of a first hard disk drive is discovered, and a second formatting is extracted from a second hard disk drive storing second data. The erroneous first formatting is replaced with a modification of the second formatting, and first data is stored in the first hard disk drive with the modification of the second formatting. The first data is different from the second data.

Claims

1. A method for correcting a formatting data error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive of a data processing system, said method comprising:

discovering a formatting error in a first formatting data in a boot sector of a first hard disk drive of a data processing system, wherein said first formatting data includes a first partition table information of said first hard disk drive;

extracting from a second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data a second formatting data and transferring said second formatting data to a formatting modification storage unit, wherein said second formatting data includes a second partition table information of said second hard disk drive, wherein said first partition table information is nonidentical to said second partition table information before a formatting data error is present in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive;

replacing in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive said erroneous first formatting data with formatting data modified within said formatting modification storage unit using template information derived from said second formatting data; and

storing first data in said first hard disk drive with said formatting data modified within said formatting modification unit using said template information derived from said second formatting data, wherein said first data is different from said second data, wherein said formatting data error is an error in a sector of said first hard disk drive that stores partition table information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a copy of said second formatting data in a boot sector of said second hard disk drive.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of generating a copy of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto said formatting modification storage unit.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said step of copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto said formatting modification storage unit further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit in an I/O interface.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of discovering a formatting error in a first formatting data in a boot sector of a first hard disk drive further comprises:

verifying a first header in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first partition table offset in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first validity of a partition name in said first hard disk drive; and

verifying a first partition table size in said first hard disk drive.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of replacing in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive said erroneous first formatting data with formatting data modified within said formatting modification storage unit using template information derived from said second formatting data further comprises the step of modifying said second formatting data of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive to construct a modification of said first formatting data of said first hard disk drive.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said step of extracting from said second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data said second formatting data further comprises extracting a second header, a second partition table offset, a second partition name, and a second partition table size from said second hard disk drive.

8. A system for correcting a formatting data error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive of a data processing system, said system comprising:

at least one processing unit;

at least one memory coupled to said at least one processing unit;

an I/O interface coupled to said at least one memory, wherein said I/O interface includes a formatting modification storage unit; and

wherein said at least one memory stores executable code for;

discovering a formatting error in a first formatting data in a boot sector of a first hard disk drive of a data processing system, wherein said first formatting data includes a first partition table information of said first hard disk drive;

extracting from a second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data a second formatting data and transferring said second formatting data to a formatting modification storage unit, wherein said second formatting data includes a second partition table information of said second hard disk drive, wherein said first partition table information is nonidentical to said second partition table information before a formatting data error is present in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive;

replacing in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive said erroneous first formatting data with formatting data modified within said formatting modification storage unit using template information derived from said second formatting data; and

storing first data in said first hard disk drive with said formatting data modified within said formatting modification unit using said template information derived from said second formatting data, wherein said first data is different from said second data, wherein said formatting data error is an error in a sector of said first hard disk drive that stores partition table information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said at least one memory stores executable code for generating a copy of said second formatting data in a boot sector of said second hard disk drive.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said executable code for generating a copy of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive further comprises executable code for copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto said formatting modification storage unit.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said executable code for copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto said formatting modification storage unit further comprises executable code for copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit in an I/O interface.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein said executable code for discovering a formatting error in a first formatting data in a boot sector of a first hard disk drive further comprises:

executable code for verifying a first header in said first hard disk drive;

executable code for verifying a first partition table offset in said first hard disk drive;

executable code for verifying a first validity of a partition name in said first hard disk drive; and

executable code for verifying a first partition table size in said first hard disk drive.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein said executable code for replacing in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive said erroneous first formatting data with formatting data modified within said formatting modification storage unit using template information derived from said second formatting data further comprises executable code for modifying said second formatting data of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive to construct a modification of said first formatting data of said first hard disk drive.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein said executable code for extracting from said second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data said second formatting data further comprises executable code for extracting a second header, a second partition table offset, a second partition name, and a second partition table size from said second hard disk drive.

15. A tangible machine-readable storage medium having a plurality of instructions processable by at least one processing unit contained within a machine embodied therein, wherein said plurality of instructions, when processed by said at least one processing unit, causes said machine to perform a method for correcting a formatting data error in a boot sector of a hard disk drive of a data processing system, comprising:

discovering a formatting error in a first formatting data in a boot sector of a first hard disk drive of a data processing system, wherein said first formatting data includes a first partition table information of said first hard disk drive;

extracting from a second hard disk drive of said data processing system storing second data a second formatting data and transferring said second formatting data to a formatting modification storage unit, wherein said second formatting data includes a second partition table information of said second hard disk drive, wherein said first partition table information is nonidentical to said second partition table information before a formatting data error is present in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive;

replacing in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive said erroneous first formatting data with formatting data modified within said formatting modification storage unit using template information derived from said second formatting data; and

storing first data in said first hard disk drive with said formatting data modified within said formatting modification unit using said template information derived from said second formatting data, wherein said first data is different from said second data, wherein said formatting data error is an error in a sector of said first hard disk drive that stores partition table information.

16. The tangible machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, said method further comprising the step of generating a copy of said second formatting data in a boot sector of said second hard disk drive.

17. The tangible machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the step of generating a copy of said second formatting data in said boot sector of second hard disk drive further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto said formatting modification storage unit.

18. The tangible machine-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein said step of copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto said formatting modification storage unit further comprises the step of copying a binary image of said second formatting data in said boot sector of said second hard disk drive onto a formatting modification storage unit in an I/O interface.

19. The tangible machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein said step of discovering a formatting error in a first formatting data in a boot sector of a first hard disk drive further comprises:

verifying a first header in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first partition table offset in said first hard disk drive;

verifying a first validity of a partition name in said first hard disk drive; and

verifying a first partition table size in said first hard disk drive.

20. The tangible machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein said step of replacing in said boot sector of said first hard disk drive said erroneous first formatting data with formatting data modified within said formatting modification storage unit using template information derived from said second formatting data further comprises the step of modifying said second formatting data of said boot sector of said second hard disk drive to construct a modification of said first formatting data of said first hard disk drive.