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Technical Disclosure Commons
Defensive Publications Series
July 2021
ALWAYS BOOTABLE OPERATING SYSTEM
HP INC
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INC, HP, "ALWAYS BOOTABLE OPERATING SYSTEM", Technical Disclosure Commons, (July 26, 2021)
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/4490
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INC: ALWAYS BOOTABLE OPERATING SYSTEM
Always Bootable Operating System
Abstract: An I/O handler redirects writes, and subsequent reads to the same blocks, to a
backup disk or partition instead of the main disk or partition, to avoid persistent data
corruption and ensure the OS is always bootable.
Published by Technical Disclosure Commons, 2021 2
Defensive Publications Series, Art. 4490 [2021]
This disclosure relates to the field of operating systems.
A technique is disclosed that avoids disk corruption persisting in the disk, so that the
operating system (OS) is always bootable
In computer systems, there is a risk of a disk containing the operating system being
corrupted. If the disk is corrupted, it may not be possible to subsequently boot from that
disk. The available solutions require a backup to be securely placed somewhere, which
mostly corresponds to a network share, which causes the restore to take more time. In
addition, the availability of such a backup requires that regular backups be performed in
the first place.
According to the present disclosure, and as understood with reference to the Figure,
data is kept intact in the main disk until the user confirms it. All the writes and the
subsequent reads to the same blocks are redirected to a secondary disk to keep the data in
the main disk intact. Once the user confirms the data is intact, the data is synced back to
main disk.
The solution includes a main disk 10, a backup disk 20, and an I/O handler 30. The I/O
handler 30 is a firmware and/or OS driver that traps the reads and writes to the main
disk/partition.
In some examples, the main disk 10 and backup disk 20 may be separate partitions on a
same disk. In some examples, the backup disk 20 may be an embedded Multi Media
Card (eMMC) or solid-state drive (SSD). The backup disk 20 or partition is typically
smaller in size, such as for example 32 GB, than the main disk 10.
In operation, the IO handler 10 traps the reads and writes 40 and redirects the data to the
appropriate disk (or disk partition). Any writes to the blocks in the main disk 10 will be
trapped and redirected to the backup disk 20. Any subsequent reads to those blocks also
will be redirected to the backup disk 20. All reads to the unmodified blocks will still be
directed to the main disk 10. This way the main disk 10 will remain unmodified and not
be affected by any application installation or virus, while the user will get the new or
modified data from the backup disk 30.
For syncing the data back to the main disk 10, a "sync and shutdown" button is provided.
A "discard" button for discarding the data may also be provided.
Once the user is done with the current session and happy with the application installed
and how the app and OS behave, they click the "sync and shutdown" button.
If the user experiences a problem, they can choose to discard the data and reboot to bring
the OS back the previous state. In some examples, before restarting the OS, they can
choose to backup any data that is created in the same session to a separate partition, or to
an external drive or network. Data can also be discarded during the boot, in case the user
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INC: ALWAYS BOOTABLE OPERATING SYSTEM
doesn't sync or discard the data, and if an issue with the boot occurs such that it is not
bootable.
In some examples, the data can be stored in a host protected area on the hard disk to hide
it from the OS, or it can be stored in a separate small disk such as a 32GB SSD in a
laptop with RAID configuration for speed of access.
The disclosed technique advantageously avoids data corruption persisting in the disk and
the OS becoming unbootable and provides faster restore from a disaster state. It enables
easy refreshing of disk that are used, for example, in kiosks, exam centers, and the like,
where fresh image/data is required for each user. Use of an SSD as the backup drive 20
speeds up disk writes as compared to a slower main drive 10.
Disclosed by Reny Paul, HP Inc.
Published by Technical Disclosure Commons, 2021 4
Defensive Publications Series, Art. 4490 [2021]
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