Methods and arrangements to remap degraded storage blocks

• US 7,661,054 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Issued: 02/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Huffman, Amber D., Grimsrud, Knut S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabone, Jr.; John J
• Application Number:
  US11/239,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20070089031A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 714/8, 714/25, 714/718, 714/746
• US Class Current: 714/746
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1012 using codes or arrangements adapted for a specific type of error G06F11/1048 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/76 using address translation or modifications

Abstract

Methods and arrangements to remap degraded storage blocks on, e.g., IDE/ATA drives are disclosed. Embodiments may comprise a host and/or a data storage device for, e.g., a handheld device. The host may comprise remapping logic. In many embodiments, the remapping logic may track degraded storage blocks as indicated by the data storage device. In several embodiments, the host may remap data from degraded storage blocks in response to indications from the data storage device that the degraded storage blocks have degraded to a point at which further use may risk loss of data. The data storage device may execute error correction code to acquire valid data and if error correction measures exceed a threshold, or are otherwise determined to be excessive, the data storage device may communicate the degradation of the storage block to the host. Other embodiments may be disclosed and claimed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

performing, by a storage device, error correction measures to acquire data from a storage medium of the storage device in response to an error detected in the data read from the storage medium;

determining, by the storage device, that a storage block of the storage medium is degraded based upon the error; and

communicating, by the storage device, degradation of the storage block to a host to prompt the host to remap the data to another storage block, wherein the host is not part of the storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the host that the host is responsible for tracking degraded storage blocks.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein notifying comprises setting an indicator in a parameters page of the storage device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the host of one or more degraded storage blocks in an initialization signature of the storage device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein performing comprises executing an error correction code (ECC).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein performing comprises rereading the data from the storage medium when low-level error correction code is unable to produce valid data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining comprises determining that the error correction measures to acquire the data exceed a threshold, the threshold selected to be indicative of the degradation of the storage block.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining comprises determining that the number of bits corrected in the storage block reaches a threshold number of bits.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating comprises indicating to the host that excessive error correction was implemented to acquire the data from the storage block.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating comprises indicating to the host an extent of the error correction measures implemented to acquire the data from the storage block to allow the host to determine whether the extent warrants remapping the data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating comprises transmitting an address for the storage block to the host, wherein the storage block is the first degraded storage block encountered during an access of the storage medium.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein communicating comprises transmitting, to the host, an address in a region of the storage block.

13. A data storage device comprising:

error correction module to perform error correction measures to acquire data from a storage medium of the data storage device in response to an error detected in the data read from the storage medium;

a degraded block identifier to identify a degraded storage block of the storage medium based upon the error; and

a degraded block indicator to communicate the degraded storage block to a host to prompt the host to remap the data to another storage block, wherein the host is not part of the data storage device.

14. The data storage device of claim 13, further comprising a notification module to notify the host that the host is responsible for tracking the degraded storage block.

15. The data storage device of claim 14, wherein the notification module is to set an indicator in a parameters page of the storage device, wherein the indicator indicates that the host should track degraded storage blocks.

16. The data storage device of claim 13, wherein the error correction module comprises a processor to execute an error correction code (ECC) to acquire data from the storage medium.

17. The data storage device of claim 13, wherein the error correction module comprises logic to reread the data from the storage medium and correct the data with a higher-level error correction code when the data as initially read from the storage medium is irreparable via a low-level error correction code.

18. The data storage device of claim 13, wherein the degraded block identifier comprises logic to determine that the error correction measures to acquire the data exceed a threshold, the threshold selected to be indicative of the degradation of the degraded storage block to a point at which the data should be remapped to avoid potential loss of the data.

19. The data storage device of claim 13, wherein the degraded block indicator comprises logic to set an indicator in an access status register to indicate to the host an extent to which the error correction measures were implemented to acquire the data from the degraded storage block.

20. The data storage device of claim 13, wherein the degraded block indicator comprises an address identifier to transmit an address for the degraded storage block to the host.

21. A system comprising:

a host to receive an indication that a first storage block is degraded and, in response, to remap data from the first storage block to a second storage block; and

a data storage device coupled with the host to perform error correction measures to acquire the data from a storage medium of the data storage device for the host in response to an error detected by the data storage device in the data read from the storage medium;

to determine that the first storage block of the storage medium is degraded based upon the error; and

to communicate an indication that the first storage block is degraded to the host.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the host comprises a remap interpreter to start tracking degraded storage blocks in response to a communication with the data storage device.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the host comprises a degraded block tracker to track the first storage block in response to an indication from the data storage device that the first storage block appears to be degraded.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the host comprises a remap module to change locations of the data on the storage medium based upon identification of degraded storage blocks.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the host comprises a degraded block identifier to determine additional degraded storage blocks in response to identification of an address range associated with the first storage block.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the data storage device comprises a degraded block identifier to determine that the error correction measures to acquire the data exceed a threshold.

27. A machine-accessible, data storage medium containing instructions, which when executed by a storage device, cause the storage device to perform operations, the operations comprising:

performing error correction measures to acquire data from a storage medium of the storage device in response to an error detected in the data read from the storage medium;

determining that a storage block of the storage medium is degraded based upon the error; and

communicating degradation of the storage block to a host to prompt the host to remap the data to another storage block, wherein the host is not part of the storage device.

28. The machine-accessible, data storage medium of claim 27, wherein the operations further comprise notifying the host that the host is responsible for tracking degraded storage blocks.

29. The machine-accessible, data storage medium of claim 27, wherein determining comprises determining that the error correction measures to acquire the data exceed a threshold, the threshold selected to be indicative of the degradation of the storage block.

30. The machine-accessible, data storage medium of claim 27, wherein communicating comprises transmitting an address for the storage block to the host.