Method and system for deferred read in lazy-write disk cache systems

Abstract

Lazy Write disk cache systems are often utilized in disk cache designs. In such systems, data to be written to the disk storage system is temporarily placed in cache memory for a preselected period of time until an actual update of the disk occurs. By deferring disk write operations input/output performance efficiency is enhanced. However, in sector-based disk storage systems in which data may only be read from or written to a disk in predetermined fixed amounts an attempted update of data often requires a read of data from the disk storage system to ensure that existing data is not written over during an update. The method and system of the present invention avoids this problem by maintaining a status table for each block of cache memory which includes an identification of each byte within each block of cache memory which will be updated. A required read from the disk storage system is then deferred until an update takes place, or eliminated entirely if all bytes within a cache memory block have been updated.