Patent ID: 7032065

Claim:
In a non-volatile memory system having memory cells organized into a plurality of blocks that are individually addressable for simultaneously erasing the memory cells within a block, wherein the blocks individually store a plurality of pages of data, the pages being designated to individually store at least one sector of user data and associated overhead data including at least one attribute of the associated user data stored in the page and at least one physical attribute of the block in which the page is stored, an improved method of operating the memory system, comprising: storing user data in portions of the pages designated to store overhead data in a manner that at least one additional sector of user data is stored in individual ones of the blocks without the storage of overhead data therein as compared with storing both the sectors of user data and the associated overhead data in said individual user data blocks, and storing said overhead data for a plurality of the user data blocks as corresponding individual records in blocks distinct from those storing the user data.