Patent ID: 7631161
Filing Date: 2009-12-08
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for writing data to protected partitions of storage media, the apparatus comprising: a communications module comprising executable code stored on a semiconductor device, executed by a processor, and configured to communicate with a host device and receive write commands for a storage device having at least one partition, each partition comprising a plurality of logical block addresses; a parse module comprising executable code stored on the semiconductor device, executed by the processor, and configured to extract a logical block address of a first partition from a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) mode page of the write commands; a check module comprising executable code stored on the semiconductor device, executed by the processor, and configured to verify a protection state of the extracted logical block address; and a protection module comprising executable code stored on the semiconductor device, executed by the processor, and configured to allow write commands according to the protection state of the extracted logical block address, the protection state selected from a plurality of protection states comprising an unprotected state; the protection module further configured to allow only extracted logical block address protection state transitions from the unprotected state to the auto-protected state, from the unprotected state to the WORM protected state, from the auto-protected state to the unprotected state in response to a reset, from the auto-protected state to the read-only auto-protected state when the extracted logical block address is written to, and from the read-only auto-protected to the WORM protected state when each logical block address in the first partition is written to.