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:
May. 29, 2012
Filed:
Sep. 17, 2008
Brian G. Nadeau, Nashua, NH (US);
Bryan K. Panner, Windham, NH (US);
Mark N. Bokhan, Milford, NH (US);
Peter J. Hunter, Amherst, NH (US);
Damon J. Hung, Chelmsford, MA (US);
Brian G. Nadeau, Nashua, NH (US);
Bryan K. Panner, Windham, NH (US);
Mark N. Bokhan, Milford, NH (US);
Peter J. Hunter, Amherst, NH (US);
Damon J. Hung, Chelmsford, MA (US);
Dell Products L.P., Round Rock, TX (US);
Abstract
Techniques for detection of impending data errors in a mass storage system, such as a track squeeze problem in an electromagnetic disk drive, and then repairing the impending problem, such as by rewriting the affected tracks. In many cases the problem is detected and repair is effected when the original data can still be read. In other cases, when the data is no longer readable on the disk in question, but when the disk is part of a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) system, or other system in which higher layer fault tolerance mechanisms are implemented, the missing data can be recovered via these mechanisms. The recovered data is then used to repair the track squeeze problem. The invention can be implemented as firmware in a storage system, as a component of a general purpose operating system, or inside individual disk drives, or it can use a combination of these implementations.