Patent ID: 8250088

Claim:
An archiving system for archiving data, the archiving system comprising: a network; two or more network storage systems, the two or more network storage systems in communication with the network, the network storage systems comprising: one or more removable disk drives, the one or more removable disk drives operable to store archival data, each removable disk drive comprising: a data cartridge case; a connector; an embedded memory, the embedded memory physically attached to the data cartridge case, the embedded memory electrically connected to the connector, the embedded memory operable to store archival data; one or more drive ports, each drive port including a data cartridge connector which mates with the connector to communicate with the embedded memory, the one or more drive ports in communication with one or more application servers, the one or more drive ports receiving the archival data from the one or more application servers and sending the archival data to the embedded memory for storage; an archiving system appliance in communication with the removable disk drives, the archiving system managing storage of the archival data stored in the one or more removable disk drives, the archiving system providing a server capable of operating as multiple independent file systems, said file systems being concurrently accessible by each of the two or more network storage systems, said archiving system providing concurrent access to said network storage systems; and wherein, the network storage systems are operable to send actions to one or more other network storage systems, the network storage systems operable to process the actions received from another network storage system, and the network storage system operable to send a response to the action.