Abstract: An invention is provided for protecting the data integrity of a cached storage device in an alternate operating system (OS) environment. The invention includes replacing a globally unique identifiers partition table (GPT) for a cached disk with a modified globally unique identifiers partition table (MGPT). The MGPT renders cached partitions on the cached disk inaccessible when the MGPT is used by an OS to access the cached partitions, while un-cached partitions on the cached disk are still accessible when the using MGPT. In normal operation, the data on the cached disk is accessed using information based on the GPT, which can be stored on a caching disk, generally via caching software. In response to receiving a request to disable caching, the MGPT on the cached disk is replaced with the GPT, thus rendering the all data on the formally cached disk accessible in an alternate OS environment where appropriate caching software is not present.

Abstract: An invention is provided for protecting the data integrity of a cached storage device in an alternate operating system (OS) environment. The invention includes replacing an actual partition table for a disk with a dummy partition table. The dummy partition table is designed to render data on the disk inaccessible when the dummy partition table is used by an OS to access the data. During operation, the data on the disk can be accessed using information based on the actual partition table. In response to receiving a request to disable caching, the dummy partition table on the disk is replaced with the actual partition table, thus rendering the data on the formally cached disk accessible in an alternate OS environment where appropriate caching software is not present.

Abstract: An invention is provided for distributing storage I/O loads across multiple storage devices with different performance characteristics. The method includes examining a current I/O request to determine characteristics of the current I/O request. The characteristics of the current I/O request are then compared to characteristics of other pending I/O request. Then, a storage device is selected from a plurality of storage devices based on the characteristics of the current I/O request and the characteristics of other pending I/O request. Here, the plurality of storage devices includes at least one storage device having higher performance characteristics than another storage device of the plurality of storage devices. Once selected, the selected storage device is utilized with the current I/O request.

Abstract: An invention is provided for loading an Option-ROM BIOS into memory without the need of an associated hardware device, such as a PCI card. The invention includes loading code from a boot sector of a designated boot device into memory, wherein the code includes Option-ROM location data denoting a location of an Option-ROM BIOS. The Option-ROM BIOS then is loaded into memory utilizing the Option-ROM location data. As above, the Option-ROM BIOS includes MBR location data denoting a location of the MBR associated with the OS. Thus, the MBR can be loaded into memory utilizing the MBR location data in the Option-ROM BIOS and control can be transferred to the MBR. Thereafter, the OS system files are loaded into memory utilizing the MBR.