Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention recite a method of preserving data on a hard disk drive. In one embodiment, a first copy of data is read from at least one sector of a hard disk drive and stored in a first location. A second copy of the data is stored in a non-volatile memory location of the hard disk drive. The first copy of the data is then modified to create a modified copy. The second copy of the data is then used to verify that the modified copy of data has been correctly written to the at least one sector of the hard disk drive.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention recite a method of preserving data on a hard disk drive. In one embodiment, a copy of data is read from at least one sector of a hard disk drive and stored in a memory location of the hard disk drive. At least a portion of the data in the memory location of the hard disk drive is then replaced to create a modified copy of data. A copy of the modified copy of data is then stored in a non-volatile memory location of the hard disk drive. Finally, the data from the at least one sector is replaced with the modified copy of data.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for predicting the recovery time required until the hard disk drive is restored to a usable state from a stand-by state. The recovery time is a time required until the hard disk drive is restored to a usable state from the stand-by state. Then, the predicted recovery time is reported to the host system. When the host system knows how much time is needed until the disk drive is recovered, it can schedule a task to be completed before the hard disk drive is restarted, thereby scheduling of all the tasks in the host system can be optimized.