Abstract:
A method for installing an external storage device (such as a hard drive) to a computer is disclosed. The external hard drive includes a driver storage formed integral to the external hard drive. The driver storage stores the device driver information. Upon connection to the computer, the external hard drive&#39;s driver storage imitates a known disk drive to the computer. The computer can then access the device driver information and install the external hard drive.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/409,946 filed Apr. 8, 2003, priority to which is claimed. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0002]     The present invention relates generally to an external storage device for use with a computer system, and more particularly, to a backup hard drive that uses an embedded installation method.  
       BACKGROUND  
       [0003]     A hard drive is a device used to store large amounts of data and is a common component of a desktop or notebook computer. However, hard drives are not solid state devices, and thus have mechanical components that are susceptible to failure.  
         [0004]     Because of this, external (meaning external to the desktop or notebook) backup hard drives are often used by computer users to periodically “back up” the data stored on the hard drives in the desktop or notebook computer. Vendors such as Iomega and Western Digital manufacture high capacity external hard drives which can be used for back up purposes.  
         [0005]     However, when a new external hard drive (such as an external hard drive) of a computer system is connected to a computer, the operating system of the computer generally issues a request asking the user of the external hard drive to install the appropriate device driver (or client software) for the external hard drive. The user then inserts a disk having stored thereon the device driver or client software. The computer operating system will then automatically execute an auto-run function allowing the user to follow an installation procedure for accomplishing the installation of the device driver onto the computer. In other words, current external back up hard drives require that a “client” be installed on the computer before the external hard drive will operate correctly.  
         [0006]     Prior art external hard drives can be connected to the computer by use of a bus, such as a universal serial bus (USB), an IEEE 1394 bus (Firewire), or a peripheral component interconnect bus (PCI). As noted above, when the external hard drive is connected, the operating system of the computer first detects the existence of the external hard drive and then checks if the computer has already been installed with the device driver.  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example of how an external hard drive  14  is installed to a computer system  21  in a traditional way. First, the user connects the external hard drive to the USB (or other bus) adapter  24  of the computer  21 . The USB adapter  24  issues a signal to the computer indicating that an external hard drive is currently connected to the computer. The USB adapter  24  issues an interrupt signal to the computer  21 .  
         [0008]     Next, when the computer  21  receives the interrupt signal, it collects the USB installation information from the I/O ports of the USB adapter  24 , and if the external hard drive is new, then it issues an inquiry command to the USB adapter  24 . Then, the USB adapter  24  issues an inquiry command to the external hard drive using the USB communication protocol, and the external hard drive  14  returns, as depicted in  FIG. 1 , a value indicating it is an external disk drive. Since a disk device is a piece of fundamental peripheral equipment of any computer system, the host operating system  23  simply takes the added external disk drive  14  as a general storage device.  
         [0009]     However, it should be noted that the user typically has to manually install a software program such as volume management software to the computer  21  for the control of the added disk drive.  
         [0010]     Traditionally, each external hard drive has associated therewith a detached storage disk (such as a CD-ROM or floppy disk) that stores the device driver and the instructions for its installation. It is not uncommon for external hard drives to be moved from computer system to computer system. Each time the external hard drive is moved, the user must have the storage disk with the driver information. The storage disk may be lost, or worse yet, a wrong driver may be installed. The installation of a wrong device driver may jeopardize the computer system operation.  
         [0011]     In other words, the traditional method of using a storage disk to store the device driver and its installation program makes the installation and/or re-installation of a device driver problematical. Accordingly, there exists a need for an easy installation system and product for connecting an external hard drive to computer systems with minimum human intervention and no downloading from a storage disk. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]      FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating a conventional method for connecting a USB external disk drive through the USB bus to the host operating system of a computer.  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  is a . . . .  
         [0014]      FIG. 3 ( a )˜ 3 ( c ) are flow charts depicting a system for the installation of a portable device driver in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0015]      FIG. 4  is a diagram showing the upgrade of a portable device driver through networking in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0016]      FIG. 5  is a flow chart depicting a system for the upgrade of a portable device driver in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0017]      FIGS. 6-8  are screen shots showing how the setup and use of the portable device driver.  
         [0018]     In the drawings, identical reference numbers identify identical or substantially similar elements or acts. To easily identify the discussion of any particular element or act, the most significant digit or digits in a reference number refer to the Figure number in which that element is first introduced (e.g., element  1104  is first introduced and discussed with respect to  FIG. 11 ) 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0019]     The following description provides specific details for a thorough understanding of, and enabling description for, embodiments of the invention. However, one skilled in the art will understand that the invention may be practiced without these details. In other instances, well-known structures and functions have not been shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the description of embodiments of the invention.  
         [0020]      FIG. 2  illustrates an external disk drive  14  that provides a portable device installation system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The external hard drive  14  has driver storage  18  to store the portable device driver and its installation program. The driver storage  18  is connected with the device USB port  20  along with hard disk  16 . The driver storage  18  in one embodiment may be non-volatile solid state memory, such as flash memory. Alternatively, the driver storage  18  may be a segment of the hard disk  16 , and thus, stored on the hard disk  16  itself.  
         [0021]     When the USB port  20  is connected to the USB host adaptor  24  of the computer  21  via USB bus  25 , the host operating system  23  of the computer performs the installation of the portable device driver. One example may be a volume manager that drives the hard disk  16 . The installation is according to a predetermined procedure stored in the driver storage  18 .  
         [0022]     As noted above, the driver storage  18  may take any number of memory forms, such as a flash memory or a compact flash device. In addition, in some embodiments, the driver storage  18  may be a hard drive or optical storage medium. While not necessary, in some embodiments, the driver storage  18  may be rewritable to allow for updating of the device driver.  
         [0023]      FIG. 3  shows one embodiment for installing the portable device driver onto a computer system. It should be noted that the description herein is in connection with a USB bus, however, the same or similar procedure can be used with any of the external or internal buses. As shown in  FIG. 3 ( a ) at block  100 , the procedure starts when the external hard drive  14  connects to the USB bus  25  of the computer  21 . At block  110 , when the host operating system  23  detects a new connection of the external hard drive  14  to the computer  21 , it starts to perform the inquiry function of the external hard drive  14  according to the protocol specified in the device hardware.  
         [0024]     Then, at block  120 , the external hard drive  14  responds that it can provide two functions: a dummy storage device with a name that is already recognizable by the host operating system  23  and a portable device driver associated with the external hard drive  14 . Thus, the dummy storage device  18  appears to the computer as a recognizable disk drive to “fool” the computer into looking at the dummy storage device  18  for the device driver.  
         [0025]     Next, at block  130 , the host operating system then binds both the dummy storage device and the portable device driver together to enable the execution of the portable device driver installation system of the present invention. As is known in the art, prior to an external hard drive being operable, a computer must first bind the external hard drive with its associated device driver. After a peripheral is binded with its device driver, the computer can utilize the external hard drive via the device driver.  
         [0026]     At block  130 , the portable device driver installation system detects whether the host operating system currently provides the auto-run function for file execution. In the case when the auto-run function is active in the host operating system  23 , then, at block  220 , the host operating system  23  of the computer  21  starts to execute the auto-run function. In the case when there is no auto-run function or the auto-run function is currently inactive in the host operating system  23  of the computer  21 , then at block  300 , the portable device driver installation system inquires the host operating system  23  if the portable device driver has ever been installed in the computer  21 .  
         [0027]     If both the auto-run function is currently unavailable and the portable device driver has not been installed, then the portable device driver installation system switches to a manual operation procedure shown in  FIG. 3 ( b ). Otherwise, if the auto-run function is currently unavailable but the portable device driver exists in the computer  21  then the portable device driver installation system switches to  FIG. 3 ( c ).  
         [0028]     At block  230 , when the host operating system  23  detects the fact that the portable device driver does not exist in the computer  21 , at block  240 , then the host operating system  23  executes the auto-run function for the installation of the portable device driver. Otherwise, if the host operating system  23  detects that the portable device driver already exists in the computer  21 , then it skips the auto-run execution and switches to  FIG. 3 ( c ).  
         [0029]      FIG. 3 ( b ) illustrates a manual operation procedure for the installation of the portable device driver embedded in the external hard drive  14 . As seen in  FIG. 3 ( b ) at block  310 , the manual operation procedure starts by asking the user to load in the portable device driver to the computer  21 . Then, at block  320 , the user assigns the portable device driver to replace the dummy storage device in the file path of the computer  21 . Specifically, in one embodiment, the computer will prompt the user that a new external hard drive has been found. At that point, the user will be asked by the computer to specify the location of the device driver for the new device by entering the path. This results in, at block  330 , the host operating system  23  of the computer  21  executing the installation of the portable device driver according to the replaced file path.  
         [0030]      FIG. 3 ( c ) illustrates the processing steps after the completion of the procedure shown in  FIG. 3 ( a ) or  FIG. 3 ( b ). At  FIG. 3 ( c ) block  340 , the host operating system  23  binds the portable device driver into the computer  21 . So that, as shown in block  350 , when the operating system  23  enables the portable device driver and disables the dummy storage device, the computer  21  can provide the service of the portable device driver.  
         [0031]      FIG. 4  illustrates an external hard drive that provides an upgradeable device installation system. The up-to-date portable device driver installer can be downloaded from a download server  31  via network  32  (such as the Internet or alternatively a LAN or WAN) or retrieved from a floppy  33 . After the upgraded device driver installer is downloaded to the host operation system  23  from the download server  31  or from the floppy  33 , the user can execute the downloaded upgraded device driver installer. The host operation system  23  first disables the device driver of the external hard drive  14 , replaces the device driver of the external hard drive  14  in the host operating system with the new driver from download server  31  or floppy  33 , and re-enables the device driver of the external hard drive. The driver storage  18  is activated by the host operating system  23  for updating the portable device driver, then, the driver storage  18  is deactivated.  
         [0032]      FIG. 5  shows the procedure of the upgrade of a portable device driver. First, at block  510 , the user downloads the upgraded device driver installer from the download server  31  or floppy  33  to computer  21 . Then, at block  520 , the user can execute the downloaded upgraded device driver installer. Next, at block  530 , the current portable device driver in the host operating system  23  is disabled. Then, at block  540 , the portable device driver in the host operating system  23  is replaced with the downloaded upgraded portable device driver. Then, at block  550 , the upgraded portable device driver is enabled again to provide services.  
         [0033]     Further, during the portable device driver on the driver storage  18  upgrading process, at block  560 , the driver storage  18  is activated before, at block  570 , the portable device driver is replaced by the upgraded portable device driver. Then, at block  580 , the driver storage  18  is deactivated again and this finishes the upgrading process.  
         [0034]     To further illustrate the present invention, the external hard drive  14 , when connected to a computer, can automatically install itself without any additional software that is not already stored by the external hard drive. The first time the external hard drive is connected to a computer, a startup wizard is initiated according to the process described above.  
         [0035]     As seen in  FIG. 6A , the setup wizard advises the user that the new external hard drive  14  is being attached and must be configured. Then, turning next to  FIG. 6B , the user must agree to a generic user license agreement. Turning next to  FIG. 6C , the installation wizard will partition the hard drive. As seen in  FIG. 6D , the user has a choice of how to partition the hard drive as well as providing a password for securing data access.  FIG. 6E  shows a warning to the user as to the updating of the password and the erasing of existing data on the external hard drive  14 .  FIGS. 6F and 6G  show additional screenshots of the user interface showing the installation of the external hard drive  14 .  
         [0036]     The process of  FIGS. 6A-6G  is performed during the initial installation of the external hard drive  14  to a computer. Additional connections of the external hard drive  14  to the same computer will result in the automatic pop up of password page as shown in  FIG. 7 . The user will then enter the password and will have access to the data on the external hard drive  14 . Finally,  FIG. 8  shows a screenshot of how the user can change the password of the external hard drive  14 .  
         [0037]     Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout the description and the claims, the words “comprise,” “comprising,” and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense as opposed to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in a sense of “including, but not limited to.” Words using the singular or plural number also include the plural or singular words, respectively. Additionally, the words “herein,” “above,” “below,” and words of similar import, when used in this application, shall refer to this application as a whole and not to any particular portion of this application.  
         [0038]     The above description of illustrated embodiments of the invention is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form enclosed. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, the invention are described herein for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize.