Patent ID: 8156292

Claim:
A method, executable in a computer system, for retrieving data in an embedded memory of a removable disk drive, the method comprising: receiving a read request for one or more data blocks, the read request specifying a first address for retrieving the one or more data blocks; reading first metadata from the embedded memory, the first metadata being located in a first portion of the embedded memory, the first portion starting at a predetermined first logical start block address and continuing for a predetermined number of logical blocks from the first logical start block address; determining, from the first metadata and the specified first address, a second address indicating an actual location of a first data block for the one or more data blocks in the embedded memory , wherein the first metadata correlates the first address specified in the read request with the second address, the actual location being in a second portion of the embedded memory, the second portion being separate from and not intermingled with the first portion; converting the received read request to a read command based on the first metadata, the read command configured to cause the removable disk drive to read the one or more data blocks starting at the second address in the embedded memory; and reading the one or more data blocks by sending the converted read command to the removable disk drive.