Patent ID: 8122268

Claim:
A method for reducing the power consumption of storage subsystems, wherein primary disk subsystem data are mirrored from a primary disk subsystem to a secondary mirror disk subsystem, the secondary mirror subsystem alternating between an operational phase and a power save phase according to a predetermined plan, the method comprising: responsive to said secondary mirror disk subsystem being in a first state, mirroring said primary disk subsystem data to said secondary mirror disk subsystem without accumulating said primary disk subsystem data in a pre-stage storage, wherein said first state comprises said secondary mirror disk subsystem being in said operational phase; and responsive to said secondary mirror disk subsystem being in a second state, accumulating primary disk subsystem data to the pre-stage storage according to a predetermined mirroring policy, the pre-stage storage configured to be substantially permanently operational, wherein said second state comprises said secondary mirror disk subsystem being in said power-save phase; and responsive to a predetermined event, moving said accumulated mirrored primary disk subsystem data from said pre-stage storage to said secondary mirror disk subsystem, wherein the predetermined event includes moving the secondary mirror subsystem from the power save phase to the operational phase.