Patent ID: 7487400

Claim:
In a storage system having a plurality of disk drives each with stored data, a system for verifying integrity of the stored data comprising: a management information storage having data entries therein associated with the plurality of disk drives, the entries indicating whether data stored in the disk drives have been verified; a processor coupled to the management information storage and selectively coupleable to ones of the plurality of disk drives for performing verification operations on the data stored therein, and storing the results in the management information storage; and a controller coupled to the processor to enable changes in verification procedures, wherein each disk drive is selectively operated in accordance with a mode of operation thereof, including a normal mode of operation and a full mode of operation, the controller being configured to receive from a computer console connected thereto a user-specified indication of one or more disk drives and a user-specified mode indicative of either the normal mode of operation or the full mode of operation to be applied to the one or more disk drives specified by a user, wherein a disk drive in the normal mode of operation is powered OFF when a power OFF criterion is satisfied, and is powered ON in response to receiving an I/O request or in response to an indication to perform a data verification operation, wherein a disk drive in the full mode of operation is always powered ON and does not perform data verification.