Abstract: A cascaded RAID controller includes a master RAID 1 controller having a control level and M slave RAID 1 controllers, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. Each of the M+1 RAID 1 controllers is configured respectively to have three ports, including a primary port configured to communicate bi-directionally with computer hardware having a higher control level than that of the respective one of the M+1 RAID 1 controllers and including two secondary ports. The cascaded RAID controller is configured to provide connections to a total of M+2 memory devices, and configured to record the same information on each of the M+2 memory devices to create M+2 identical copies of the information. A process for initializing a cascaded RAID controller is also described.

Abstract: The invention relates to a hard drive dock (HDD) including a HDD enclosure having a first HDD outer surface and a second HDD outer surface. Each of the first HDD outer surface and the second HDD outer surface have disposed within an electrical connector configured to electrically connect to a releasably attached hard drive pod (HDP). The HDD includes a bridge circuit disposed within the HDD enclosure. The bridge circuit is configured to provide a communicative interface between the releasably attached HDP and the computer data bus connection. The HDD is mechanically configured to accept a releasably attached hard drive pod (HDP) on either or both of the first HDD surface and the second HDD surface. The invention also relates to a HDD enclosure having two or more HDD outer surfaces. The invention also relates to a releasably attached hard drive pod.

Abstract: The invention relates to a system for transferring media content on a network including a hardware device. The hardware device is configured to be connected to a network. The hardware device also includes at least one I/O interface and at least one user interface I/O. The system also includes a computer configured to be communicatively connected to the hardware device via the computer network. Installed software on the computer includes one or more virtual devices and supervisor software. The supervisor software starts at least one media software package suitable to perform the user requested media transfer between the hardware device and the computer via the one or more virtual devices. Another aspect of the invention relates to a method of transferring a media file between a remote hardware device and a computer.

Abstract: A system and method for configuring collections of non-display, input and output devices and display devices in a multi-user computer system. Initially, the invention heuristically creates at least two collections of non-display devices, each of which includes a keyboard, by analyzing connection patterns of each of the non-display devices to the computer data buses. Display devices are added to each collection by causing a user prompt to appear on a display, and then causing the display to be associated with the collection of the keyboard that is used to respond to the prompt. Each display device is associated with a particular collection in this manner. Thus, the collections are constructed by a heuristic methodology relative to the non-display devices, and manually relative to the display devices.

Abstract: A system and method for configuring collections of non-display, input and output devices and display devices in a multi-user computer system. Initially, the invention heuristically creates at least two collections of non-display devices, each of which includes a keyboard, by analyzing connection patterns of each of the non-display devices to the computer data buses. Display devices are added to each collection by causing a user prompt to appear on a display, and then causing the display to be associated with the collection of the keyboard that is used to respond to the prompt. Each display device is associated with a particular collection in this manner. Thus, the collections are constructed by a heuristic methodology relative to the non-display devices, and manually relative to the display devices.