Patent ID: 7712131

Claim:
A device for securing and enabling authorized operation of diagnostic software to diagnose computer storage-related equipment running on a host computer having an operating system pre-installed, comprising: a removable solid-state memory device having an end-user-accessible first read-only reserved area that is at least configured to contain a unique and unchangeable identification sequence; a second area in said solid-state memory device containing said diagnostic software, said diagnostic software being configured for operation on said operating system to diagnose said computer storage-related equipment while said host computer is operating using said pre-installed operating system and for a limited period without reauthentication with the memory device; and a hidden partition, that is in-accessible to a user for reading or writing without special commands not readily available to the end-user and without entry of a password unknown to the end-user, said hidden partition having stored therein at least an encrypted version of the unique identification sequence to enable operation of diagnostic software only when the specific memory device having the unique and unchangeable identification sequence has been inserted into a communication port of either the host computer or a separate authentication computer in communication with the host computer.