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US 6,192,471 B1Granted
Operating system independent system for running utility programs in a defined environment
AssigneeDell USA, L.P.
InventorsJohn J. Pearce, Anthony L. Overfield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system which builds an operating system-independent environment for executing utility programs is created by establishing a virtual drive that resides on a physical disk drive within the native file system of a native operating system. A virtual drive is a set of files on a physical disk drive that is configured to emulate a physical disk drive. The virtual drive can be deleted by a computer user and similarly can be re-established by the computer user. The virtual drive is bootable and activates an operating system that makes all system resources accessible to the utility programs and also allows the computer user to use the disk space that is allocated for the virtual drive, if desired.
Claims35
A method of executing a utility program on a computer system comprising:
- operating in a computing environment that restricts access to a resource;
- receiving a request to perform a utility program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restriction;
- in response to the request, executing the requested utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment including:
- reserving a region of a native file system for usage as a virtual resource;
- executing a virtual resource reboot command that designates the virtual resource in the reserved region of the native file system as a bootstrap device;
- invoking an interceptor in response to the reboot command, the interceptor relating a location on the virtual resource to a location in the native file system;
- executing the utility program, the utility program generating accesses to the virtual resource;
- and
- intercepting accesses to the virtual resource and directing a resource access location to a native file system location so that the resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions imposed by the computing environment.
6 more elements
A method of executing a utility program on a computer system comprising:
- operating in a computing environment that restricts access to a resource;
- receiving a request to perform a utility program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restriction;
- in response to the request, executing the requested utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment including:
- reserving a region of a physical resource for usage as a virtual resource;
- bootstrap loading an operating system which designates the virtual resource in the reserved region of the native file system as a bootstrap device;
- executing the utility program, the utility program generating resource accesses to the virtual resource;
- and
- intercepting the resource accesses to the virtual resource and directing a resource access location to a corresponding physical resource location so that the restricted-access resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions imposed on the resource by the computing environment.
5 more elements
A computer usable medium having computable readable code embodied therein for operating on a computer system having a processor, a memory and a hard disk drive, the computable readable code comprising:
- a utility activation routine operational in a computing environment that restricts access to a resource, the utility activation routine being invoked by a request to perform a utility program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restriction;
- and
- an operating system independent utility execution routine that executes the requested utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment, the operating system independent utility execution routine including:
- a virtual drive reservation routine responsive to the utility activation routine, the virtual drive reservation routine reserving a region of the hard disk drive as a virtual disk drive;
- an interceptor which intercepts a disk access directed to a location on the virtual disk drive in the reserved region of the native file system and directs the disk access to a corresponding location on the physical disk drive;
- a reboot command that activates the virtual disk drive as a bootstrap device;
- and
- a bootstrap routine responsive to the reboot command by invoking the interceptor;
- a utility routine operational to generate disk accesses to the virtual disk drive so that the resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions to the resource imposed by the computing environment.
6 more elements
A computer usable medium having computable readable code embodied therein for operating on a computer system having a processor, a memory and a hard disk drive, the computable readable code comprising:
- means for operating in a computing environment that restricts access to a resource;
- and
- means for executing the requested utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment including:
- means for receiving a request to perform a utility program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restriction;
- means responsive to receipt of a request for reserving a region of the hard disk drive as a virtual disk drive;
- means for intercepting a disk access directed to a location on the virtual disk drive in the reserved region of the native file system and directing the disk access to a corresponding location on the physical disk drive;
- means for requesting the virtual disk drive as a bootstrap device;
- means for executing the utility program, the utility program generating disk accesses to the virtual disk drive;
- and
- means responsive to the requesting means for invoking the intercepting means to intercept disk accesses to the virtual disk drive and direct a disk access location to a native file system location so that the resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions imposed by the computing environment.
7 more elements
A computer usable medium having computable readable code embodied therein for operating on a computer system having a processor, a memory and a physical resource, the computable readable code comprising:
- a utility activation routine operational in a computing environment that restricts access to a resource, the utility activation routine being invoked by a request to perform a utility program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restriction;
- and
- an operating system independent utility execution routine that executes the requested utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment, the operating system independent utility execution routine including:
- a virtual resource reservation routine responsive to the utility activation routine, the virtual resource reservation routine reserving a region of the physical resource as a virtual resource;
- an interceptor which is invoked by a virtual resource bootstrap and intercepts a resource access directed to a location on the virtual resource in the reserved region of the native file system and directs the resource access to a corresponding location on the physical resource;
- and
- a utility routine operational to generate resource accesses to the virtual resource, so that the resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions to the resource imposed by the computing environment.
4 more elements
A method of operating a computer system having a processor, a memory and a hard disk drive comprising:
- activating a utility program operational in a computing environment that restricts access to a resource, the utility program being a program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restriction;
- and
- executing the activated utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment including:
- reserving a region of the hard disk drive as a virtual resource;
- intercepting a resource access directed to a location on the virtual resource and directing the resource access to a corresponding location on the hard disk drive;
- and
- generating resource accesses to the virtual resource via the utility routine so that the resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions to the resource imposed by the computing environment.
4 more elements
A computer system for building an operating system-independent environment for executing utility programs comprising:
- a processor;
- a memory coupled to the processor;
- a hard disk drive coupled to the processor;
- a native operating system controlling the processor and controlling accessing of the memory and hard disk drive by the processor, control of accessing of the memory and the hard disk drive including prohibiting access;
- a native file system defined in accordance with the native operating system;
- a utility program operational in the native operating system that controls access to the memory and the hard disk drive, the utility program being a program that attempts to access the memory and hard disk drive contrary to the prohibition of access imposed by the native operating system;
- and
- a routine for establishing a virtual drive within the native file system, the utility program generating resource accesses to the virtual drive so that the restricted-access resource is accessed bypassing the access restrictions to the resource imposed by the native operating system independent of the particular native operating system.
5 more elements
A method of operating a computer system having a processor, a memory and a hard disk drive comprising:
- establishing a native file system in accordance with a native operating system that restricts access to a resource;
- activating a utility program operational in the native operating system, the utility program being a program that attempts to access the resource in a manner that violates the access restrictions imposed by the native operating system;
- and
- executing the activated utility program bypassing the restrictions imposed by the computing environment independent of the particular computing environment including:
- establishing a virtual drive within the native file system, the utility program generating resource accesses to the virtual drive so that the resource subject to the access restriction is accessed despite the access restrictions to the resource imposed by the native operating system.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.