Patent ID: 11868635
Assignee: WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A storage system, comprising:
a memory configured to be partitioned into a plurality of independently-bootable partitions, wherein each partition comprises its own dedicated control block comprising (a) instructions for restricting access to the partition only to an authenticated entity, (b) its own boot block configured to boot the partition even if another one of the plurality of partitions is not bootable due to a problem with a boot block in the another one of the plurality of partitions, and (c) copies of boot blocks of other partitions of the plurality of partitions wherein a number of copies of boot blocks equals a number of the other partitions in the plurality of partitions; and
a controller configured to communicate with the memory and to for each of the plurality of partitions:
attempt to boot the partition using the boot block in the dedicated control block in the partition;
in response to a failure to boot the partition, use a boot block in the dedicated control block of another one of the plurality of partitions to boot the partition; and
in response to successfully booting the partition, attempt to authenticate an entity to access the partition;

wherein different partitions of the plurality of partitions comprise their own dedicated control blocks.