Method and system for automatically preserving persistent storage

A method in a computer system for automatically protecting data, the computer system having a storage area on one or more storage devices, comprising:

• determining storage protection level for at least one storage device;
• when the protection level indicates that some level of storage protection is desired,
• designating a first storage area on the least one storage device as redirected space;
• designating a second storage area on the at least one storage device as unprotected space and generating an unprotected space table that stores addresses of the at least one storage device in the unprotected space;
• designating a third storage area on the at least one storage device as available space and generate an available space table that stores addresses of the at least one storage device in the available space;
• designating a fourth storage area on the at least one storage device as protected space and generating a protected space redirection table that maps addresses of the at least one storage device in the protected space to addresses in the redirected space;
• and
• registering a software redirection driver as an input/output driver and loading the registered redirection driver in a volatile memory of the computer system, the software redirection driver configured to intercept attempted accesses to location in the protected space and redirect the intercepted accesses to the redirected space.

A computer system for automatically protecting data, comprising:

• a first storage area on at least one storage device designating redirected space;
• a second storage area on the at least one storage device designating unprotected space;
• a third storage area on the at least one storage device designating available space;
• a fourth storage area on the at least one storage device designating protected space;
• an unprotected space table that stores addresses of the at least one storage device in the unprotected space;
• an available space table that stores addresses of the at least one storage device in the available space;
• a protected space redirection table that maps addresses of the at least one storage device in the protected space to addresses in the redirected space;
• and
• a software redirection driver, wherein the redirection driver is registered as an input/output driver and loaded into a volatile memory of the computer system, the software redirection driver configured to intercept attempted accesses to location in the protected space and redirect the intercepted accesses to the redirected space.