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US 2012/0072398 A1Published application
Method and Apparatus for Creating a Self Booting Operating System Image Backup on an External USB Hard Disk Drive That is Capable of Performing a Complete Restore to an Internal System Disk
AssigneeCMS Products, Inc.
InventorsGary William Streuter, Randy Deetz, James Sedin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Backup applications that use externally connected hard disk drives for storing full image backups of a windows system disk or compressed image or file by file backups of a windows system disk. A system incrementally updates the images, including the system registry, and puts information on the external drive that makes it bootable.
Claims16
A computer system, comprising:
- a computer system with:
- at least one main computer file storage unit, storing plural user files including an operating system that operates according to a system registry;
- a system BIOS;
- at least one backup computer file storage unit, connected over a computer-controlled bus;
- and
- said computer system operating to execute a first software application program, that:
- normally maintains said backup computer file storage unit as locked in a way that requires a code to unlock the backup computer file storage unit;
- automatically unlocks said backup computer file storage unit to copy files to the backup computer file storage unit as part of a backup operation which copies plural files from said main computer file storage unit to said backup computer file storage unit, and automatically locks said backup computer file storage unit after said plural files have been copied;
- and
- based on detecting information indicative of a failure in said main computer file storage unit, carrying out an operation to allow a user to boot from said backup computer file storage unit by unlocking said backup computer file storage unit in the case of a failure in said main computer file storage unit.
7 more elements
A method of operating a computer for backup with a locked drive on a computer, comprising:
- storing plural user files including an operating system that operates according to a system registry on a computer at least one main computer file storage unit;
- operating the computer by executing said operating system, and changing said user files;
- operating the computer to back up said at least one main computer file storage unit to at least one backup computer file storage unit, where said at least one backup computer file storage unit is connected to said computer over a computer-controlled bus;
- and
- using the computer for maintaining said backup computer file storage unit as locked in a way that requires a code to unlock the backup computer file storage unit;
- using the computer for automatically unlocking said backup computer file storage unit to copy files to the backup computer file storage unit as part of a backup operation which copies plural files from said main computer file storage unit to said backup computer file storage unit;
- using the computer for automatically locking said backup computer file storage unit after said plural files have been copied;
- and
- based on detecting information indicative of a failure in said main computer file storage unit, the computer carrying out an operation to allow a user to boot from said backup computer file storage unit by unlocking said backup computer file storage unit in the case of a failure in said main computer file storage unit.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.