Iomega Corporation

David A Thompson

Gregory M Allen

Clark C Bruderer

David G Braithwaite

Trent Mark Thomas

Jim Sandman

Thane S Heninger

A method of inhibiting inadvertent and unauthorized writing and reading of information to and from a storage medium comprises the steps of (a) writing a first code in a predetermined location on the storage medium, the first code being indicative of a first protection mode of the storage medium; (b) receiving a command to change the protection mode of the storage medium from the first protection mode to a second protection mode; and, in response to the command, (c) writing in the predetermined location on the storage medium, in place of the first code, a second code indicative of the second protection mode. A protection mode can inhibit writing to the storage medium, both writing and reading to and from the medium, or neither. Changing of protection modes can also be password protected.

Read/write protect scheme for a disk cartridge and drive

A disk can store data from two different operating systems, particularly DOS and MAC OS formats. The initial sector on the disk, sector zero, is divided between the operating systems, allowing two sector signatures. As a result, DOS recognizes the disk as valid and the MAC OS can support a driver on the disk. According to another aspect of the invention, the DOS portion of the dual-format disk is reclaimed by having a software program start its execution on the dual-format disk then switch its execution to another storage device. As a result, the program can dismount the dual-format disk and safely reclaim it for use on the MAC OS.

Method for sharing a storage medium between computers having disparate

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Ogden, UT, United States of America

David A Thompson