Patent ID: 7853823

Claim:
A method for partial strip reconstruction in a storage system in which a plurality of lost strips have been detected, said method comprising: using a combination of a direct reconstruction method and a sequential reconstruction method to reconstruct said partial strip, as executed by a processor of a computer, wherein said sequential reconstruction method reconstructs a data element, from an input set of data elements to reconstruct, by collapsing said sequential reconstruction method to reduce cost, wherein said collapsing said sequential reconstruction method comprises at least one of: using implicit intermediate results to reconstruct said data element; determining whether any unnecessary data elements exist in at least one strip of the plurality of lost strips that are not part of said partial strip, and combining at least a portion of steps in said sequential reconstruction method to eliminate reconstruction of said unnecessary data elements; avoiding unnecessary use of data elements that are not lost; avoiding duplicate use of data elements that are not lost; and avoiding multiple use of data elements that are not lost.