Method and apparatus for storing and copying data via a first path and a second path wherein second path bypasses mirror driver

A computer system comprising:

• an application program;
• a plurality of storage devices, wherein at least some of the plurality of storage devices form a mirror set of storage devices;
• at least one storage driver that provides an interface between the application program and the plurality of storage devices;
• a mirror driver that receives an I/O request from the application program requesting access to one of the plurality of storage devices, duplicates the I/O request to create a plurality of I/O requests, and sends the plurality of I/O requests to the at least one storage driver so that each storage device of the mirror set receives and processes one of the I/O requests;
• a mirror application that communicates with the mirror driver to establish which of the plurality of storage devices are included in the mirror set;
• and
• a first buffer and a second buffer, wherein the I/O request from the application program is a read request to read data from at least one of the storage devices in the mirror set, and wherein the mirror driver, in response to the read request, is configured to read data from a first storage device of the mirror set and to store the data read in the first buffer, and is configured to read data from all storage devices other than the first storage device in the mirror set and to store the data read from the storage devices other than the first storage device in the second buffer.

A data storage method for storing data in and retrieving data from a plurality of storage devices, the method comprising steps of:

• receiving a first storage command for one of the plurality of storage devices;
• using the first storage command to create a plurality of second storage commands;
• sending one of the second storage commands to each of the plurality of storage devices, wherein the second storage command is a request to read data from one of the plurality of devices;
• reading data from a first device of the plurality of storage devices;
• storing data read from the first device of the plurality of storage devices in a first buffer;
• reading data from each of the plurality of devices other than the first device;
• and
• storing data read from each of the plurality of devices other than the first device in a second buffer.

A computer readable medium for containing a computer program for a computer system having a processor, an operating system, an application program, a plurality of storage devices, and at least one storage driver that acts as an interface between the application program and the plurality of storage devices, the computer program including instructions for:

• receiving an I/O request from the application program;
• creating a copy of the I/O request;
• sending the I/O request and the copy of the I/O request to the at least one storage driver;
• reading data from a first device of the plurality of storage devices;
• storing data read from the first device of the plurality of storage devices in a first buffer;
• reading data from each of the plurality of devices other than the first device;
• and
• storing data read from each of the plurality of devices other than the first device in a second buffer.