Patent ID: 8037243

Claim:
A system for installing data storage system software on disk drive systems, comprising; a disk drive system connected to a storage processor, wherein the disk drive system comprises a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) system having a first disk drive and a second disk drive; a nonvolatile memory module connected to the storage processor, wherein the nonvolatile memory module uses flash memory, wherein the nonvolatile memory module includes an initializer program and a bootable image; and wherein the storage processor is configured to initialize at least one of the first and second disk drives as a bootable device upon installation on the storage processor, the storage processor comprising: first logic booting the storage processor from the nonvolatile memory module, wherein booting from the nonvolatile memory module includes executing the initializer program; second logic copying the bootable image stored in the nonvolatile memory module to the disk drive system by the initializer program; and third logic rebooting the storage processor, wherein rebooting the storage processor includes booting up said copied bootable image directly from the disk drive system.