Patent ID: 7113945
Filing Date: 2006-09-26
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A method of accessing stored data, comprising: providing a virtual storage area having a table of pointers that point to one of: a disk storage area and a volatile memory area, wherein the virtual storage area contains no sections of data; causing all of the pointers of the table to initially point to sections of the disk storage area when the virtual storage area is initially associated with the disk storage area; in response to a request for accessing data of the virtual storage area, determining whether a corresponding one of the pointers points to the disk storage area or points to the volatile storage area; accessing the data from the disk storage area or from the volatile storage area; associating a first one of the other storage areas with the virtual storage area, wherein the virtual storage area represents a copy of data of the disk storage area; and in response to a write to a first section on the disk storage area, copying data of the first section to a second section that is part of the volatile storage area and causing a corresponding one of the pointers of the table to point to the second section.