Apparatus and method for managing metadata in portable terminal

• US 9,069,789 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2008
• Issued: 06/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Jang, Seok-Kyu, Woo, Young-June, Min, Young-Hoon, Lee, Sin-Jae
• Primary Examiner(s): LO, ANN J
• Application Number:
  US12/325,362
• Publication Number:
  US 20090150464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,402 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1847 specifically adapted to static storage, e.g. adapted to flash memory or SSD

Abstract

A method and apparatus for managing metadata in a portable terminal are provided. The method includes, upon insertion of an external memory, acquiring a unique identifier of an external memory, determining whether a record having information identical to information of a file included in the external memory exists if the unique identifier is identical to a previously stored unique identifier, and reusing metadata included in the record if the record exists.

Claims

1. A method for managing metadata in a portable terminal, the method comprising:

acquiring a unique identifier of an external memory upon insertion of the external memory;

determining if the unique identifier is identical to a previously stored unique identifier;

if the unique identifier is identical to the previously stored unique identifier, determining whether a record having information identical to information of a file included in the external memory exists; and

if the record exists, reusing metadata included in the record.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata comprises metadata for a file of a previously inserted external memory.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the unique identifier is not identical to the previously stored unique identifier, deleting at least one of a new table and an old table for the external memory; and

extracting metadata of the file from the external memory.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the record having information identical to information of the file included in the external memory exists, comprises:

deleting a new table if the new table and an old table for the external memory exist; and

determining whether the old table comprises the record identical to the information of the file included in the external memory.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising updating the old table with additional data from the new table if it is determined that the new table includes additional data not listed in the old table.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the record having information identical to information of the file included in the external memory exists, comprises:

changing a new table into an old table if the new table for the external memory exists and the old table for the external memory does not exist; and

determining whether the old table includes the record identical to the information of the file included in the external memory.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information identical to the information of the file comprises a name of the file and a cluster number of the file.

8. The method of claim 1, the unique identifier comprises a serial number.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if a log file for external memory exists in a memory of the portable terminal; and

if the log file does not exist, generating a log file for external memory,

wherein the determining if the unique identifier is identical to a previously stored unique identifier comprises reading the unique identifier from the log file.

10. An apparatus for managing metadata in a portable terminal, the apparatus comprising:

a controller for, upon insertion of an external memory, acquiring a unique identifier of the external memory, if the unique identifier is identical to a previously stored unique identifier, determining whether a record having information identical to information of a file included in the external memory exists, and if the record exists, reusing metadata included in the record,

wherein the external memory is inserted into or removed from the portable terminal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the metadata comprises metadata for a file of a previously inserted external memory.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the controller deletes at least one of a new table and an old table for the external memory and extracts metadata of the file from the external memory if the unique identifier is not identical to the previously stored unique identifier.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein to determine whether the record having information identical to the information of the file included in the external memory exists, the controller deletes a new table if the new table and an old table exist and determines whether the old table comprises the record identical to the information of the file included in the external memory.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the old table is updated with additional data from the new table if it is determined that the new table includes additional data not listed in the old table.

15. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein to determine whether the record having information identical to the information of the file included in the external memory exists, the controller changes a new table into an old table if the new table for the external memory exists and the old table for the external memory does not exist, and determines whether the old table comprises the record identical to the information of the file included in the external memory.

16. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the information identical to the information of the file comprises a name of the file and a cluster number of the file.

17. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the unique identifier comprises a serial number.

18. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the controller determines if a log file for external memory exists in a memory of the portable terminal and, if the log file does not exist, generates a log file for external memory, further wherein, to determine if the unique identifier is identical to a previously stored unique identifier, the controller reads the unique identifier from the log file.