Patent ID: 7573154

Claim:
A portable device that is battery operated and stores data for retrieval, the portable device comprising: a hard disk drive having a first data storage capacity and storing data in the portable device, a solid-state memory module having a second data storage capacity, smaller than the first data storage capacity, temporarily storing blocks of data being retrieved, an output module outputting the blocks of data temporarily stored by the solid-state memory module, a copy module intermittently copying blocks of data from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module to be output by the output module, a primary battery having a first energy storage capacity and providing energy directly to the solid-state memory module, a supplemental energy storage device having a second energy storage capacity and providing energy directly to the hard disk drive in intermittent periods when the blocks of data are being copied from the hard disk drive to the solid-state memory module, wherein the first energy storage capacity is larger than the second energy storage capacity, and a charger module charging the supplemental energy storage device, from the primary battery, when blocks of data are not being copied from the hard disk drive to the solid-memory state module by the copy module, wherein an electrical current supplied by the supplemental energy storage device to operate the hard disk drive intermittently is larger than a charging current supplied by the primary battery through the charger module to charge the supplemental energy storage device.