Abstract: The invention introduces an apparatus for facilitating deletions of file data that is protected by copy-on-write (COW) snapshots, at least including a storage device and a processing unit. The processing unit calculates release estimates for accumulated inspection sets, each of which includes one or more identities (IDs) of first COW snapshots, deleting second COW snapshots with references made to the release estimates, and deleting the sets of file data that are invisible from a directory tree and are not protected by any COW snapshot after the second COW snapshots are deleted.

Abstract: The invention introduces an apparatus for a redundant array of independent disk (RAID) reconstruction, at least including a RAID group and a processing unit. The processing unit starts an unused-space scan procedure to determine a logical address range that is a candidate to be skipped for the RAID group and send the logical address range to a stripe reconstruction procedure; and starts the stripe reconstruction procedure to receive the logical address range from the unused-space scan procedure, determine a stripe of drives of the RAID group to be skipped from being reconstructed according to the logical address range, and omit a reconstruction to the determined strip.

Abstract: The invention introduces an apparatus for a file backup, at least including a processing unit and a storage device. The processing unit divides a source stream into a first and a second data streams according to last-modified information, performs a data deduplication procedure on the first data stream to generate and store unique chunks in the storage device and generate a first part of a first set of composition indices for the first data stream; copies composition indices corresponding to logical locations of the second data stream from a second set of composition indices for a previous version of the source stream as a second part of the first set of composition indices; combines the first and second parts of the first set of composition indices according to logical locations of the source stream; and stores the first set of composition indices in the storage device.

Abstract: The invention introduces an apparatus for transmitting files through networks, at least including a processing unit and a communications interface. The processing unit determines whether a real-time network situation is favorable; determines a first protocol over Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to carry out a file upload or download task if the real-time network situation is favorable; determines a second protocol over User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to carry out the file upload or download task if the real-time network situation is not favorable; and sends or receives data fragments via the communications interface to or from a storage server using the determined protocol.

Abstract: A method for installing an external storage device (such as a hard drive) to a computer is disclosed. The external hard drive includes a driver storage formed integral to the external hard drive. The driver storage stores the device driver information. Upon connection to the computer, the external hard drive's driver storage imitates a known disk drive to the computer. The computer can then access the device driver information and install the external hard drive.

Abstract: A method for installing a peripheral device to a computer is disclosed. The peripheral device includes a driver storage formed integral to the peripheral device. The driver storage stores the device driver information. Upon connection to the computer, the peripheral device's driver storage imitates a known disk drive to the computer. The computer can then access the device driver information and install the peripheral device.

Abstract: A method for efficiently maintaining snapshot instances. To maintain the state of snapshot instances, the snapshot copies the data needed to be protected into free space on the same volume. In order to identify whether a block is free, a snapshot record is created for each block on a volume to record write operations on the block. With these snapshot records, the allocation status of blocks on a volume can quickly be identified. Free space allocation is then accomplished by allocating free space via the file-system provided interface and identifying it with snapshot records. With this mechanism, snapshot software can allocate free space to store snapshot metadata and “copy-to-write” data dynamically.

Abstract: A computer implemented cache memory for a RAID-5 configured disk storage system to achieve a significant enhancement of the data access and write speed of the raid disk. A memory cache is provided between the RAID-5 controller and the RAID-5 disks to speed up RAID-5 system volume accesses. It utilizes the time and spatial locality property of parity blocks. The memory cache is central in its physical architecture for easy management, better utilization, and easy application to a generalized computer system. The cache blocks are indexed by their physical disk identifier to improve the cache hit ratio and cache utilization.

Abstract: A computer implemented cache memory for a RAID-5 configured disk storage system to achieve a significant enhancement of the data access and write speed of the raid disk. A memory cache is provided between the RAID-5 controller and the RAID-5 disks to speed up RAID-5 system volume accesses. It utilizes the time and spatial locality property of parity blocks. The memory cache is central in its physical architecture for easy management, better utilization, and easy application to a generalized computer system. The cache blocks are indexed by their physical disk identifier to improve the cache hit ratio and cache utilization.

Abstract: A method for installing an external storage device (such as a hard drive) to a computer is disclosed. The external hard drive includes a driver storage formed integral to the external hard drive. The driver storage stores the device driver information. Upon connection to the computer, the external hard drive's driver storage imitates a known disk drive to the computer. The computer can then access the device driver information and install the external hard drive.

Abstract: The present invention pertains to a computer software implemented method, system, and apparatus for automatic updating disk drive configuration and rebuilding RAID data to assure proper data storage in a RAID configured system. The computer software implemented configuration mechanism utilizing CPU and memory of a computer system automatically generates a full configuration of the disk drives connected to system peripheral bus both at system initialization time and runtime. The configuration mechanism uses a computer-implemented procedure for scanning a newly added disk drive, detecting conflict to the existing configuration, resolving conflicts, finding a proper target referenced or ruined disk drive, replacing this target disk drive with the newly added disk drive, rebuilding the RAID data into the added disk drive, updating RAID configuration with the added disk drive, and presenting to the host operating system the current configuration information.