Patent ID: 8880776

Claim:
A method for accessing data at a data storage device, the method comprising: in a data storage device with a controller, a memory, and an interface to communicate with a host device, the memory including a data file and cluster information associated with the data file, wherein the cluster information is initially received from the host device or is preloaded onto the data storage device, wherein the cluster information is stored by the controller in a host-inaccessible portion of the memory and the data file is stored in a host accessible portion of the memory, wherein content stored in the host-inaccessible portion cannot be accessed by the host via the interface, and wherein the data storage device does not maintain an internal file system, performing: receiving via the interface from the host device, a request to access data; and in response to receiving the request: retrieving, by the controller, the cluster information from the host-inaccessible portion to locate at least one region of the memory corresponding to the data file, wherein the cluster information identifies a particular set of clusters of a plurality of sets of clusters, and wherein each of the plurality of sets of clusters stores a part of and not an entirety of a file system; and accessing, by the controller, the data from the data file at the at least one region of the memory located in accordance with the cluster information.