Data storage device deferred secure delete

• US 9,658,799 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2013
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lang, Jakob C., Troester, Martin, Nunez Mencias, Angel, Pohl, Thomas
• Primary Examiner(s): Perveen, Rehana
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hoffler, Raheem
• Application Number:
  US14/036,421
• Publication Number:
  US 20150088838A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,336 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24556 Aggregation; Duplicate elimination
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device

Abstract

A method of securely deleting data from a data storage device is described. The method includes the steps of receiving a secure delete command to securely delete a file. A data block of the file to securely delete is identified. A pointer to the data block is stored in a deletion buffer. It is then determined whether the secure delete command has a highest priority over other data storage device commands. In response to the secure delete command having the highest priority, the secure delete command to the data block is performed.

Claims

1. A data storage device, comprising:

a persistent storage;

a deletion buffer to store a pointer to a block of data; and

a controller configured to

receive a secure delete command to securely delete data of a file, wherein the secure delete command causes the data to be deleted to be overwritten two or more times,

identify a data block of the file to securely delete,

store a pointer to the data block in the deletion buffer, the pointer including an address of the data block in the persistent storage,

determine whether the secure delete command has a highest priority over other data storage device commands,

perform the secure delete command to the data block in response to the secure delete command having the highest priority,

pause the secure delete command in response to the secure delete command not having the highest priority,

determine whether the deletion buffer is full; and

perform the secure delete command to the data block in response to determining the deletion buffer is full.

2. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

defer performing the secure delete command to the data block in response to determining that the data storage device is performing one or more read or write storage operations.

3. The data storage device of claim 2, the controller further configured to:

determine whether a first power supply is supplying power to the data storage device; and

perform the secure delete command on a data block having a pointer stored in the deletion buffer in response to determining that the first power supply is not supplying power to the data storage device, wherein the secure delete command is performed using power of a second power supply.

4. The data storage device of claim 3, the controller further configured to:

determine a power capacity of the second power supply; and

set the deletion buffer capacity to a size where the power capacity of the second power supply is sufficient to perform the secure delete command on data blocks identified by one or more pointers in the deletion buffer when the first power supply is not providing power.

5. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the second power supply is a power storage device, the power storage device being one of a battery or a capacitor.

6. The data storage device of claim 3, wherein the secure delete command in the buffer is given the highest priority over the other data storage device commands.

7. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is a hard disk drive (HDD).

8. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the data storage device is a solid state drive (SSD).

9. The data storage device of claim 1, wherein the secure delete command causes the data to be deleted to be overwritten two or more times with all logical zeros, all logical ones, random data, or a combination of all logical zeros, all logical ones, and random data.