Patent ID: 7475277

Claim:
For use in a virtual data storage system for use with a client system and a plurality of physical storage devices, the virtual data storage system including a device emulator for receiving commands and data from the client system and a storage system for storing the data to the plurality of physical devices in accordance with storage management policies, a method of reconstructing data on damaged devices, the method comprising: receiving, at the device emulator, commands and data from the client system; converting the received data into a data object; generating object specific metadata for the data object; storing the data object and the object specific metadata to the plurality of physical devices in accordance with the storage management policies, the object specific metadata being stored together with the data object with the object specific metadata embedded into the data object; storing a separate copy of the object specific metadata to the plurality of physical devices, the separate copy being stored separate from the data object; detecting an error when attempting to access the data object; and after detecting the error, determining an extent of data loss by examining the separate copy of the object specific metadata.