US 5,675,769 A · Method for manipulating disk partitions

Abstract

A method allows manipulation of disk partitions defined by an IBM-compatible partition table. The disk partitions may be located on one or more disks attached to one or more disk drives. Each partition has an associated file system type, such as FAT or HPFS. An interrupted manipulation may be resumed at a point in the progress of the manipulation near the point of interruption. Available manipulations include verifying the integrity of a partition's file system structures; displaying information about a partition; moving a partition to a different location; resizing a partition; and converting a partition from one file system to another file system. The resizing step is illustrated with particular reference to HPFS file systems and FAT file systems. The details required to perform these manipulations are attended to by an implementing program that requires only general direction from a user. Thus, the present invention provides a method that allows users who are unfamiliar with technical intricacies to easily manipulate IBM-compatible disk partitions, including extended partitions and logical partitions.

Drawings

Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO

Drawings

Claims67

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for manipulating disk partitions, comprising the steps of:

selecting an IBM-compatible partition located on a disk, the partition having a left edge and a right edge, the disk attached to a disk drive communicating with a source of electric power, the disk having at least one platter having a plurality of substantially concentric tracks, each track having a plurality of sectors arranged substantially in end-to-end fashion;
and
resizing the selected partition to produce a modified partition having a different number of disk sectors than the selected partition, said resizing step comprising (a) determining The size of file system structures in a system area of the modified partition, (b) identifying a data area in the selected partition that will not lie within the data area of the modified partition but will instead be allocated to file system structures of the modified partition, and (c) clearing the data from the identified data area by physically relocating it to the data area of the modified partition while avoiding physical relocation of used data sectors in the selected partition that will lie within the data area of the modified partition.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Description16,823 words

Summary3,777 words

#The present invention permits manipulation of selected partitions of a computer disk drive More particularly the present invention relates to a method for safely shrinking expanding, moving, and copying hard disk partitions.

#Computers utilize a wide variety of disks to store data. Disks are classified according to the storage medium employed, such as when "optical" disks are distinguished from "magnetic" disks. Disks are also classified as either "floppy" or "hard." Hard disks generally have greater storage capacity, faster data access times, and longer useful lives than floppy disks ("floppies"). Unlike hard disks, however, floppies are "removable." That is, floppies are easily released from, and reattached to, a disk drive which provides the computer with access to the data on the disk.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a disk 10 attached to a disk drive 12. The disk 10 illustrates physical characteristics of both floppies and hard disks. The disk 10 contains a number of concentric data cylinders such as the cylinder 14. The cylinder 14 contains several data sectors, including sectors 16 and 18. The sectors 16 and 18 are located on an upper side 20 of the disk 10; additional sectors may be located on a lower side 22 of the disk 10. The sides 20, 22 of the disk 10 define a platter 24. Floppy disks contain only one platter and thus are either single-sided or double-sided. For clarity of illustration only one platter 24 is shown in FIG. 1, but hard disks often contain several platters and thus may include one, two, or more sides.

Brief description of the drawings10 figures

#To illustrate the manner in which the advantages and features of the invention are obtained, a more particular description of the invention summarized above will be rendered by reference to the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings only provide selected embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:

#FIG. 1 is a partial cut-away view of a computer disk drive.

#FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an IBM-compatible partition table.

Detailed description12,798 words

#Reference is now made to the figures wherein like parts are referred to by like numerals. The present invention relates to a method for physically manipulating disk partitions. As noted above, each partition has an associated file system type, such as 12-bit FAT, 16-bit FAT, FAT-compatible, CP/M-86, XENIX, NOVELL, PCIX, or HPFS. The present invention will be illustrated mainly by reference to HPFS and FAT partitions defined as primary partitions on the disk 10 (FIG. 1) by an IBM-compatible partition table. However, those of skill in the art will appreciate that the scope of the present invention comprises manipulation of both primary and logical partitions on one or more disks of various kinds, and that such partitions may be associated either with the file systems listed expressly herein or with other file systems.

#A preferred method of the present invention for manipulating disk partitions is illustrated by a flowchart in FIGS. 4 and 5. A computer program which implements this flowchart and/or other teachings of the present invention in order to assist users in molding disk partitions is referred to herein as an "implementing program." Those of skill in the art will readily create appropriate implementing programs according to the present invention by using computer languages such as C or C++, conventional compilers and linkers, and other tools familiar to computer programmers. Implementing programs may execute on conventional digital computers, including without limitation IBM-compatible personal computers.

#All critical portions of the implementing program, such as those containing disk updates, are preferably protected by proper utilization of a data recovery method. A checkmarking data recovery method prevents data loss unless failure occurs in the middle of a disk write. Checkmarking stores progress markers on the disk within a selected partition. The progress markers correspond to incrementally increasing portions of the modification of the selected partition, thereby removing the need to repeat all of those portions over again if the modification is resumed after the flow of electric power to the disk drive is temporarily interrupted. A journaling data recovery method is generally faster than the checkmarking method and prevents data loss even if power fails in the middle of a disk write. Journaling preserves at least one copy of all user data on the disk at all times during the partition modification, thereby reducing the risk of loss of user data if modification is temporarily interrupted. According to alternative methods of the present invention, a data recovery method familiar to those of skill in the art may also be employed.

Method for manipulating disk partitions

Life of this patent

Method for manipulating disk partitions

Life of this patent

Life of this patent

Abstract

Drawings

Drawings

Claims67

Description16,823 words

Drawings

Classification4 codes

Life of this patent

Description16,823 words