Apparatus and method for restoring data

• US 7,555,501 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2004
• Issued: 06/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kohno, Shigeru
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khoshnoodi; Fariborz
• Application Number:
  US10/864,083
• Publication Number:
  US 20050021497A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,847 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/200, 707/202, 711/163, 711/173, 714/6, 714/15, 714/20, 714/1, 386/116
• US Class Current: 707/684
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

An apparatus and method for restoring data is provided for easily restoring a file that is carelessly deleted from a hard disk. A microcomputer 1 is constructed as follows. An original file and a file for restoration whose extension is different from that of the original file are stored in a HDD unit 3. When it is determined that the original file is not capable of being reproduced, the filename or the extension of the file for restoration may be renamed, thereby restoring the original file. Even when the original file is carelessly deleted or not capable of being reproduced due to its corruption, the original file can be automatically restored using the file for restoration.

Claims

1. An audio-video system comprising:

an audio-video processing section operatively coupled to a recording medium;

the recording medium having a preinstalled media area configured to contain an original file and a file for restoration, the original file is edited or deleted via user operation, the file for restoration (1) differing from the original file in at least one of a filename and an extension and (2) being a hidden file that cannot be edited or deleted via user operation;

a reproducibility determining section operatively coupled to the audio-video processing section and configured to determine (a) whether the original file has been deleted and (b) whether the original file is corrupted; and

a file restoring processor operatively coupled to the audio-video processing section configured to restore the original file to a reproducible state when the reproducibility determining section determines that either the original file has been deleted or is not capable of being reproduced due to corruption, wherein the file restoring processor includes a display section for informing a user that the reproduction of the original file is impossible when the reproducibility determining section determines that the original file is not capable of being reproduced, and the file restoring processor modifies at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file for restoration when an instruction to restore the file is received from the user in response to the information provided by the display section, and;

wherein the original file is restored by copying the file for restoration and modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file for restoration to be the same as that of the original file, while maintaining the file for restoration in an unaltered state for use during subsequent file restorations.

2. The apparatus for restoring data according to claim 1, wherein the file restoring processor includes a display section for informing a user that the reproduction of the original file is impossible when the reproducibility determining section determines that either the original file has been deleted or is not capable of being reproduced due to corruption, and the file restoring processor modifies at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file for restoration when an instruction to restore the file is received from the user in response to the information provided by the display section.

3. The apparatus for restoring data according to claim 1, wherein the recording medium for storing the file for restoration is a hard disk and the reproducibility determining section determines that the original file is deleted by referencing a playlist of music files.

4. A computer implemented method for restoring data, comprising:

determining whether an original file has been deleted when the original file is intended to be reproduced from a recording medium having a preinstalled media area configured to contain the original file and a hidden file for restoration, the hidden file (a) being incapable of being altered by user operations and (b) differing from the original file in at least one of a filename and an extension;

when a determination is made the original file has been deleted from the recording medium, restoring the original file using the hidden file for restoration;

or if a determination is made the original file has not been deleted from the recording medium, then determining whether the original file is not capable of being reproduced due to corruption;

restoring the original file to a reproducible state by copying the hidden file and modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file to be the same as that of the original file so as to conform to the original file when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced due to corruption, while maintaining the hidden file in an unaltered state for use during subsequent file restorations; and

informing a user that the reproduction of the original file is impossible when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced, and modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file for restoration when an instruction to restore the file is received from the user in response to the information provided.

5. The method for restoring data according to claim 4, the method comprising, when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced, copying the hidden file and modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file, thereby restoring the original file and maintaining the hidden file unaltered for subsequent file restoration.

6. The method for restoring data according to claim 4, the method comprising informing a user that the reproduction of the original file is impossible when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced, modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the hidden file for restoration when an instruction to restore the original file is received from the user.

7. The method for restoring data according to claim 4, the method comprising determining whether the original file is capable of being reproduced when reproduction of the original file is instructed.

8. The method for restoring data according to claim 7, the method comprising, when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced, copying the hidden file for restoration and modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file thereby restoring the original file.

9. The method for restoring data according to claim 7, the method comprising informing a user that the reproduction of the original file is impossible when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced, and modifying at least one of the filename and the extension of the hidden file for restoration when an instruction to restore the file is received from the user.

10. The method for restoring data according to claim 4, wherein the recording medium for storing the file for restoration is a hard disk.

11. An apparatus for restoring data, comprising:

an internal recording medium having a preinstalled media area configured to store an original file and a restoration file, the original file and the restoration file containing identical data content, the original file being alterable via user operations and the restoration file being an unalterable hidden file and differing from the original file in at least one of a filename, an extension, and a predetermined attribute;

an audio-video processing section operatively coupled to the internal recording medium;

an integrity unit configured to determine if the integrity of the original file is intact by checking that (1) the original file has not been deleted and (2) the original file is not corrupted;

a processor that utilizes only data content stored in the restoration file to restore the integrity of the original file, without altering the restoration file so as to maintain the restoration file unaltered for use during subsequent file restoration operations, when the integrity unit determines that the integrity of the original file is not intact because the original file has been deleted or is corrupted; and

a display section for informing a user that the reproduction of the original file is impossible when a determination is made the original file is not capable of being reproduced, and the processor modifies at least one of the filename and the extension of the copied file for restoration when an instruction to restore the file is received from the user in response to the information provided by the display section.

12. The apparatus for restoring data of claim 11, wherein at least one of the filename, the extension, and the predetermined attribute of the restoration file is modified to restore the original file.

13. The apparatus for restoring data of claim 11, wherein the integrity unit determines that the integrity of the original file is not intact by referencing a playlist to determine that the original file has been.

14. The apparatus for restoring data of claim 13, wherein the processor generates a message on a display indicating that the integrity of the original file is not intact.

15. The apparatus for restoring data of claim 14, wherein the apparatus receives an instruction to restore the original file and the processor restores the original file by copying the restoration file.

16. The apparatus for restoring data of claim 11, wherein the restoration file is protected from inadvertent deletion by the user.