US 7,890,801 B2Granted

Method and computer-readable medium for verifying and saving an electronic document

AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation

InventorsBrian M. Jones, Carol L. Liu, Chad B. Rothschiller, Robert R. McCaughey, Shawn A. Villaron, Su-Piao B. Wu

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Abstract

A method and computer-readable medium are provided for saving the contents of a memory structure stored in a volatile memory. According to the method, corrupted portions of the memory structure are identified and an attempt is made to repair these portions. If the corrupted portions cannot be repaired, the saving of these portions is skipped. The uncorrupted and repaired portions of the memory structure are then saved to a data file stored on a mass storage device. If portions of the memory structure cannot be repaired or skipped, an attempt is made to save only the user data contained in the memory structure to the data file. In this manner, the user data contained in the memory structure may be saved to a data file even in cases of severe corruption.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, will cause the computer to:

provide a first saving mode, a second saving mode, and a third saving mode;
begin saving the contents of a memory structure having a plurality of data records in the first saving mode, wherein minimal integrity checking is performed on the at least one data record;
determine while saving the contents of the memory structure in the first saving mode whether the at least one of the plurality of data records is unsaveable;
in response to determining in the first saving mode that at least one of the plurality of data records is unsaveable, switch to the second saving mode;
attempt to save the contents of the memory structure from its beginning in the second saving mode, wherein in the second saving mode additional integrity checks are performed on the plurality of data records as compared to the first mode;
determine if the at least one unsaveable data record can be repaired;
in response to determining that the at least one unsaveable data record can be repaired, repair the at least one unsaveable data record and saving the at least one repaired data record;
in response to determining that the at least one unsaveable data records cannot be repaired, skip the at least one unsaveable and unrepairable data record;
determine while saving the contents of the memory structure in the second saving mode whether the saving of the at least one unsaveable and unrepairable data records cannot be skipped;
and
in response to determining that the saving of the at least one unsaveable data record cannot be skipped while saving in the second saving mode, switch to the third saving mode wherein only user data stored in the memory structure is saved.

8 more elements

A method for saving the contents of a memory structure comprising a plurality of data records to a data file located on a mass storage device, the method comprising:

providing a first saving mode, a second saving mode, and a third saving mode;
attempting to save the contents of the memory structure to the data file in the first saving mode, wherein minimal integrity checking is performed on the plurality of data records while saving in the first saving mode;
determining while saving the memory structure in the first saving mode whether at least one of the plurality of data records is unsaveable;
in response to determining in the first saving mode that at least one of the plurality of data records is unsaveable, switching to the second saving mode;
attempting to save the memory structure from its beginning in the second saving mode, wherein in the second saving mode additional integrity checks are performed on the plurality of data records as compared to the first mode;
determining if the at least one unsaveable data record can be repaired;
in response to determining that the at least one unsaveable data record can be repaired, repairing the at least one unsaveable data record and saving the at least one repaired data record;
in response to determining that the at least one unsaveable data records cannot be repaired, skipping the at least one unsaveable and unrepairable data record;
determining while saving the memory structure in the second saving mode whether the saving of at least one of the plurality of data records cannot be skipped;
and
in response to determining that the saving of at least one of the plurality of data records cannot be skipped while saving in the second saving mode, switching to the third saving mode wherein only the plurality of data records comprising user data stored in the memory structure is saved.

8 more elements

A method for saving the contents of a memory structure comprising a plurality of data records to a data file located on a mass storage device, the method comprising:

providing a first saving mode, a second saving mode, and a third saving mode;
attempting to save the contents of the memory structure to the data file in the first saving mode, wherein minimal integrity checking is performed on the plurality of data records while saving in the first saving mode;
determining while saving the memory structure in the first saving mode whether at least one of the plurality of data records is unsaveable, wherein a data record is unsaveable if it includes an unexpected data value, is missing data, includes invalid extensible markup language, causes an application program to crash when saving the record, is corrupt, or if the record is missing;
in response to determining in the first saving mode that at least one of the plurality of data records is unsaveable, switching to the second saving mode;
attempting to save the memory structure from its beginning in the second saving mode, wherein in the second saving mode additional integrity checks are performed on the plurality of data records as compared to the first mode;
determining whether the at least one of the plurality of data records that is unsaveable can be repaired;
in response to determining that the at least one of the plurality of data records that is unsaveable can be repaired:
repairing the at least one of the plurality of data records that is unsaveable;
and
saving the at least one of the plurality of data records that has been repaired;
in response to determining that the at least one of the plurality of data records that is unsaveable cannot be repaired, skipping the saving of the at least one of the plurality of data records that is unsaveable and unrepairable;
determining while saving the memory structure in the second saving mode whether the saving of at least one of the plurality of data records cannot be skipped;
and
in response to determining that the saving of at least one of the plurality of data records cannot be skipped while saving in the second saving mode, switching to the third saving mode, wherein the third saving mode comprises:
determining whether any of the plurality of data records comprise user data, wherein user data comprises at least one of text data, numerical data, formulas, and formula generated data;
determining whether any of the plurality of data records comprising user data stored in the memory structure are missing or corrupt;
and
saving each of the plurality of data records comprising user data stored in the memory structure that is not missing or corrupt.

15 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 12/021,770Filed 29 Jan 2008 · continuation
Priority: 20 Dec 2004
Published: US 2008/0126447 A129 May 2008
Granted: 15 Feb 2011
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

G06F 11/1402
Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations: saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
Y10S 707/99943
Database schema or data structure: generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
G06F
Computing and data processing
Y10S
Technical subjects covered by former uspc cross-reference art collections [xracs] and digests

Family

Application11/018,916Parent of this continuation · filed 20 Dec 2004
US 2008/0126447 A1Pre-grant publication · published 29 May 2008
US 7,337,358 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2006/0143542 A1Published application
US 7,890,801 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.