Patent ID: 8726069

Claim:
A method, implemented by a computer system, comprising: receiving, by a hardware module in the computer system, an indication of failure of the computer system, the hardware module capable of accessing a file system independent from an operating system of the computer system, the file system stored in a data storage directly attached to the computer system; in response to receiving the indication of failure of the computer system, switching to a state that listens to file access commands on a dedicated channel coupled to the hardware module, the hardware module being a basic input/output system (BIOS); receiving, by the BIOS via the dedicated channel, a file access command to access the file system in the data storage directly attached to the computer system, wherein the operating system of the computer system is inactive; determining, by the BIOS, a physical location of data blocks to be accessed in the data storage according to the file access command received via the dedicated channel; and accessing, by the BIOS, the data blocks in the data storage according to the file access command received via the dedicated channel.