Patents by Inventor William Charles Koester

William Charles Koester has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8356206
    Abstract: The present principles include methods and apparatus for repairing corrupted files systems of storage devices. In accordance with aspects of the present principles, a listing of sectors to which data is most recently written is retrieved upon interruption of writing operations on a storage medium. The listing is employed to implement a targeted search for sectors that are most likely to be corrupted. The sectors providing in the listing are examined and sectors including errors are identified. Thereafter, the errors are corrected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Date of Patent: January 15, 2013
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventor: William Charles Koester
  • Patent number: 8014093
    Abstract: The present principles provide methods for storing the write counts for each track on the track or alternatively in NVRAM in the hard disk. Most hard disks already have a mechanism to remap a sector that becomes un-writable. This mechanism is used to remap entire tracks when a track write count becomes too high. A track with an excessively high write count can be mapped by the hard disk firmware to a track with a very low write count. By automatically remapping these tracks based on the number of write the wear can be more evenly distributed across the platter thus increasing the service life of the hard disk without modification to the application software.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2011
    Assignee: Thomson Licensing
    Inventor: William Charles Koester
  • Publication number: 20100153773
    Abstract: The present principles include methods and apparatus for repairing corrupted files systems of storage devices. In accordance with aspects of the present principles, a listing of sectors to which data is most recently written is retrieved upon interruption of writing operations on a storage medium. The listing is employed to implement a targeted search for sectors that are most likely to be corrupted. The sectors providing in the listing are examined and sectors including errors are identified. Thereafter, the errors are corrected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Inventor: William Charles Koester
  • Publication number: 20100153347
    Abstract: The present principles provide methods and apparatus for preventing data corruption on a storage device by integrating a journaling file system with a cache system. To ensure journal accuracy with respect to data that is most likely to affect file system integrity, a method in accordance with an aspect of the present principles includes bypassing the cache when writing such data to a main platter of a storage device. Furthermore, to ensure overall efficiency in reading and writing data, a method in accordance with an aspect of the present principles includes writing to a cache, in addition to writing to the platter, data that has a relatively less damaging effect on file system integrity. Thus, aspects of the present principles optimally integrate a cache system with a journaling file system to provide both a robust file system integrity and an efficient reading and writing mechanism.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 19, 2008
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Inventors: William Charles Koester, John Spencer Dyson
  • Publication number: 20100134914
    Abstract: The present principles provide methods for storing the write counts for each track on the track or alternatively in NVRAM in the hard disk. Most hard disks already have a mechanism to remap a sector that becomes un-writable. This mechanism is used to remap entire tracks when a track write count becomes too high. A track with an excessively high write count can be mapped by the hard disk firmware to a track with a very low write count. By automatically remapping these tracks based on the number of write the wear can be more evenly distributed across the platter thus increasing the service life of the hard disk without modification to the application software.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 28, 2008
    Publication date: June 3, 2010
    Inventor: William Charles Koester
  • Publication number: 20100107016
    Abstract: The system and method for preventing write errors in storage mediums includes detecting the presence of an early power fail (EPF) signal derived from a power supply circuit providing power to the storage device. In response to the EPF signal, a modified standby-immediate (MSI) command is issued to the Storage device controller circuitry. The storage device controller circuitry responds by causing the storage medium to finish the current write operation and cease all future write operations. In this manner, write errors are prevented by causing the storage device to cease write operations before the expiration of predetermined time period between the issuance of the EPF signal and actual power failure.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2007
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Inventors: Gerald Adolph Colman, John Spencer Dyson, William Charles Koester, Raul Galindez-Torres, Ronald G. Wolenty