Scheduling spin-up operations for a set of hard disk drives

#1. Field

#The present invention generally relates to techniques for improving the performance of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for scheduling spin-up operations for a set of hard disk drives in a computer system.

#2. Related Art

#FIG. 1 illustrates a system for scheduling spin-up operations for a set of hard disk drives in a computer system.

#FIG. 2 presents a flowchart illustrating a process for scheduling spin-up operations for a set of hard disk drives in a computer system.

#The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the disclosed embodiments, and is provided in the context of a particular application and its requirements. Various modifications to the disclosed embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present description. Thus, the present description is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein.

#The data structures and code described in this detailed description are typically stored on a computer-readable storage medium, which may be any device or medium that can store code and/or data for use by a computer system. This includes, but is not limited to, volatile memory, non-volatile memory, magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk drives, magnetic tape, CDs (compact discs), DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital video discs), or other media capable of storing computer-readable media now known or later developed.

#FIG. 1A illustrates a system for scheduling spin-up operations for a set of hard disk drives in a computer system. Computer system 100 includes set of hard disk drives (HDDs) 102, available-power monitor 104, HDD selector 106, and HDD spin-up scheduler 108. Set of hard disk drives 102 includes M HDDs, with HDD 1, HDD2, HDD3, and HDD M depicted.