Patent ID: 8719660

Claim:
A method for indicating health of a removable memory system that is removably coupled with a host device, the method comprising: after the memory system is coupled with a host device, outputting a first health status via an external electrical or mechanical interface of the memory system; monitoring one or more health metrics of the memory system; after a first predefined limit is reached with respect to the one or more health metrics, outputting a second health status via the external electrical or mechanical interface of the memory system, wherein the first health status differs from the second health status, and wherein the first predefined limit is a first programming or erase count limit and the second health status indicates that the memory system is close to its maximum programming or erase count limit for allowing programming operations from the host to the memory system to continue; and after a second predefined limit is reached with respect to the one or more health metrics, converting the memory system to read only mode after the memory system is decoupled from the host device or the host device remains idle for more than a predefined time duration.