Method of and content delivery server for delivering content to a personal computer having a disk drive which includes a network address for the content delivery server and a server-contacting program
AssigneeWestern Digital Ventures, Inc.
InventorsMatthew W. Milne, Michael K. Eneboe, Scott T. Hughes, Vu V. Luu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A content delivery server delivers digital content to a personal computer having a disk drive which stores a network address and server-contacting program for establishing a connection between the content delivery server and the personal computer. The content delivery system provides a variety of digital content including AVI, MPEG and MP3 format files to the personal computer and periodically refreshes the content according to user preferences.
Claims17
A method of delivering content from a content delivery server to a personal computer system that includes a computing subsystem and a disk drive, the method comprising:
- selecting a network address for the content delivery server;
- selecting a server-contacting program;
- storing the network address and the server-contacting program in the disk drive;
- installing disk drive executable code in a disk controller circuit in the disk drive to initiate execution of the server-contacting program after the disk drive is connected to the computing subsystem in the personal computer system, wherein execution of the server-contacting program includes using the network address for connecting the personal computer system to the content delivery server;
- and
- configuring the content delivery server, the configuring comprising:
- receiving user information from the personal computer system while the personal computer system is connected to the content delivery server;
- and
- delivering content to the personal computer system in response to the user information.
A content delivery server for delivering content to a personal computer system that includes a computing subsystem and a disk drive, the content delivery server comprising:
- means for communicating with a personal computer system, wherein the personal computer system comprises:
- a disk drive comprising:
- a network address for identifying the content delivery server;
- and
- a server contacting program;
- a disk controller circuit for, upon the occurrence of a selected condition that is determined by the disk controller circuit, initiating execution of the server-contacting program after the disk drive is connected to the computing subsystem in the personal computer system, wherein execution of the server-contacting program includes using the network address for connecting the personal computer system to the content delivery server;
- means for receiving user information from the personal computer system while the personal computer system is connected to the content delivery server;
- means for maintaining a database including the user information associated with the disk drive in the personal computer system;
- and
- means for delivering content to the personal computer system in response to the user information.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.