The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 20, 2000
Alan E. Beelitz, Leander, TX (US);
Alexander Krigsfeld, Austin, TX (US);
Andrew Wilks, Austin, TX (US);
Dell USA, L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for partitioning a hard disk during installation of a network OS. In one embodiment, a computer system is booted from a CD-ROM containing a computer server setup (“CSS”) program. The CSS program prompts a user for certain disk preparation data, including the primary and utility partition sizes and volume label. The CSS program then writes a self-loading binary image (“SLBI”) to the first track of the first hard disk immediately following the master boot record (“MBR”). The SLBI includes a bootstrap loader, disk preparation code, and the disk preparation data. The sector address of the SLBI bootstrap loader is placed into a partition descriptor within the master partition table (“MPT”) of the MBR. The computer is then rebooted and control transferred to the SLBI, which the prepares the hard disk by partitioning the disk to include a utility and primary partition of the desired sizes and volume label (primary partition) and formatting these partitions appropriately. The SLBI then removes itself from the first track and updates the MPT with the new descriptors, at which point the computer system is again rebooted.