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US 5,414,850 AGranted
System for transparently compressing data files in a computer system
AssigneeStac Electronics, Inc.
InventorDouglas L. Whiting
Life of this patent
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AssigneeStac Electronics, Inc.
InventorDouglas L. Whiting
Estimating the term…
A data compression device driver compresses and decompresses files on a disk drive in a computer system when a user copies files from a drive letter assigned to the disk drive to a drive letter assigned to the data compression device driver. Drive parameter blocks for the disk drive and for the data compression device driver contain the assigned drive letter, disk geometry information, a rebuild flag, and a pointer to the device driver. A swapping means swaps the device driver pointers in the drive parameter blocks corresponding to the disk drive and the data compression device driver. From then on, compressed data files may be accessed transparently by using the drive letter which was originally assigned to the disk drive before swapping, which now refers to the data compression device driver.
A method for maintaining compressed data files on a disk drive in a computer system so that a user may access said data files as if they were uncompressed, said disk drive having a drive letter assigned by an operating system, said operating system storing with said assigned drive letter a device driver pointer to said disk drive, said method comprising:
A method for maintaining compressed data files on a disk drive in a computer system so that a user may access said data files as if they were uncompressed, said disk drive having a drive letter assigned by an operating system, said method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.