Western Digital Ventures, Inc.

Western Digital Technologies, Inc.

Vu V Luu

Matthew W Milne

Michael K Eneboe

Scott T Hughes

Mark F Vallis

Xuejian Fu

David H Smith

Stephen T Havert

A personal computer system displays digital content received from a content delivery server. The content delivery server provides the digital content as a result of being contacted by a server-contacting program stored on a disk drive in the computer and initiated by the drive firmware. The digital content can be any of a number of file types including AVI, MPEG, or MP3.

Method of and personal computer for displaying content received from a content delivery server using a disk drive which includes a network address for the content delivery server and a server-contacting program

A computer network connects a personal computer system to a content delivery system for delivering digital content to the personal computer. The personal computer comprises a disk drive which includes a network address for the content delivery system and a server-contacting program. The disk drive comprises firmware installed during manufacturing of the drive which initiates execution of the server-contacting program to enable the network connection and facilitate delivery of content to a large number of personal computers.

Computer network and connection method for connecting a personal computer and a content delivery system using a disk drive which includes a network address and server-contacting program

A system for configuring, loading and executing an operating system for performing a user-selected function is disclosed. The system includes a disk drive including: a host-accessible user partition; a host-inaccessible hidden partition independent of the host-accessible user partition; and a disk controller. The user partition includes: a user partition address range; a host-selected operating system; and a host-selected master boot record. The host-inaccessible hidden partition includes: a hidden partition address range outside the user partition address range; an application program for allowing a user to select a function to perform and configuring, loading and executing an operating system to perform the selected function; and a drive-selected boot record for loading and executing the application program that allows the user to select a function and configures, loads and executes an operating system for performing the function.

Disk drive having a protected partition configured to load an operating system for performing a user-selected function

A content delivery server delivers digital content to a personal computer having a disk drive which stores a network address and server-contacting program for establishing a connection between the content delivery server and the personal computer. The content delivery system provides a variety of digital content including AVI, MPEG and MP3 format files to the personal computer and periodically refreshes the content according to user preferences.

Method of and content delivery server for delivering content to a personal computer having a disk drive which includes a network address for the content delivery server and a server-contacting program

A disk drive is manufactured with a stored server-contacting program and a network address. Preferably, a protected area is provided for retaining the server-contacting program and the network address in the disk drive while it travels through a distribution channel to be installed in a user's personal computer system. The disk drive has firmware installed during manufacturing to initiate execution of the server-contacting program at an appropriate time, preferably when a selected condition has been met.

Disk drive and method of manufacturing same including a network address and server-contacting program

The present invention may be embodied in a method, performed in a computer system having a disk drive, for installing an application program for execution under a user's preferred operating system without requiring user intervention. A command is received by the disk drive for reading a first data block to initiate a bootload of the user's preferred operating system. The disk drive detects the command and transfers a second data block which bootloads an installer program for installing the application program. The installer program is executed in the computer system to transfer the application program from a protected area of the disk drive to a user area of the disk drive, to modify a parameter of the user's preferred operating system to cause the application program to be loaded during a bootload of the user's preferred operating system, and to reboot the system to bootload the user's preferred operating system.

Method for installing an application program, to be executed during each bootload of a computer system for presenting a user with content options prior to conventional system startup presentation, without requiring a user's participation to install the program

The invention may be embodied in a method and a related computer system. The computer system includes a host computer with a native drive-access routine having a limited address range, and a disk drive with a protected area that is inaccessible to a user's preferred operating system. The protected area also lies beyond the limited address range. The method includes receiving and detecting a command in the disk drive for reading a master boot record to initiate a bootload of the operating system. In response to detecting the command, the method includes transferring a drive-selected master boot record that, when executed in the computer system, initiates a process that enables address spoofing, loads an extended-address drive-access routine from the protected area using spoofed addresses within the limited address range, and executes the extended-address drive-access routine to replace the native drive-access routine for providing access to the protected area.

Computer system and method for accessing a protected partition of a disk drive that lies beyond a limited address range of a host computer's BIOS

The invention relates to a method for accessing data in a hidden area of a physical disk drive. The physical disk drive reports a user logical address range during booting the host computer or configuring an operating system for maintaining a file system, but does not report a hidden logical address range. A virtual disk drive is created that has a virtual logical address range that is reported to the operating system. A driver program is invoked for remapping addresses of the virtual logical address range with addresses of the hidden logical address range. When the file system makes a disk request directed to accessing a file in the virtual logical address range, the disk request is remapped from the virtual logical address range to the hidden logical address range. A command is transmitted to the physical disk drive using the remapped file address range.

Method for accessing data storage locations having addresses within a hidden logical address range

A computer system has a host computer coupled to a disk drive having a host interface subsystem. The host interface subsystem includes a user partition, a drive management partition, and a disk-drive-selected application partition. The user partition stores data for execution by the host computer. The drive management partition stores data for execution by the disk drive. The disk-drive-selected application partition stores data for execution by the host computer in response to a drive-determined condition. The host interface subsystem further includes a user command interface that processes commands for storing data in the user partition, a first drive command interface that processes commands for storing data in the disk drive management partition according to a first disk-drive command protocol, and a second drive command interface that processes commands enabling data storage in the application partition according to a second disk-drive command protocol.

COMPUTER SYSTEM HAVING A HOST COMPUTER COUPLED TO A DISK DRIVE WITH A DRIVE-SELECTED-APPLICATION PARTITION FOR STORING DATA FOR EXECUTION BY THE HOST COMPUTER IN RESPONSE TO DRIVE-DETERMINED CONDITIONS

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Milpitas, CA, United States of America

Vu V Luu