System and method for intelligent and reliable booting

A method for intelligent and reliable booting of a system comprising the steps of:

• establishing a priority hierarchy of at least three alternative booting devices in each of which are stored booting files, said priority hierarchy being based upon relative speed of said alternative booting devices such that high speed booting devices are assigned a higher priority than low speed booting devices, said priority hierarchy of said booting devices having a descending order of (a) RAM, (b) one of NVRAM and FLASHROM, (c) a hard disk drive, and (d) a removable media device;
• monitoring said system by a plurality of monitoring devices to detect specific operational errors;
• determining a reliability of each of said alternative booting devices based upon operational error data of said system from said plurality of monitoring devices, said reliability being related to integrity of booting files stored in said alternative booting devices;
• selecting from said alternative booting devices a booting device highest in said hierarchy that is determined by at least one of said monitoring devices to be reliable;
• and
• booting said system with said selected booting device.

A system for intelligent and reliable system booting comprising:

• a system bus connected to at least one central processor;
• at least four of booting devices coupled to said system bus comprising a hard disk drive, a removable media device, RAM, and at least one of NVRAM and FLASHROM;
• a power fail sensor to detect power failures in said system, said detection of power failures during an operation of said system since a last successful booting indicating unreliability of said RAM and said hard disk drive as booting devices, said power fail sensor thereby being a first indicator of reliability of boot files available to said system;
• a watchdog timer sensor to detect malfunctions in said at least one central processor, said detection of central processor malfunctions during an operation of said system since said last successful booting cycle indicating unreliability of said RAM and said one of NVRAM and FLASHROM as booting devices, said watchdog timer sensor thereby being a second indicator of reliability of boot files available to said system;
• a memory status sensor to detect memory checksum errors, said detection of memory checksum errors during operation of said system since said last successful booting cycle indicating unreliability of said RAM and said one of NVRAM and FLASHROM, said memory status sensor thereby being a third indicator of reliability of boot files available to said system;
• a removable media error sensor to detect errors in an operation of said removable media device, said errors in an operation of said removable media device during an operation of said system since said last successful booting cycle indicating unreliability of said removable media device as a booting source, said removable media error sensor thereby being a fourth indicator of reliability of boot files available to said system;
• means connected to said system bus and responsive to all of said power fail sensor, said watchdog timer sensor, said memory status sensor, and said removable media error sensor for selecting which one of said at least four booting devices to utilize for each system booting process based at least partially on detection of specific system operational error, said means for selecting being configured to access said first, second, third and fourth indicators of reliability in selecting among said at least four booting devices;
• and
• means, responsive to selection from among said at least four booting devices by said selecting means, for accessing said selected one of said booting devices to load an operating system program into a main memory.