Patent ID: 7363346

Claim:
A method for reliably storing information across a plurality of computers networked together, each of the plurality of computers including a storage mechanism, said information including a plurality of information units, the method comprising: generating at least one protection unit based on the plurality of information units such that said information can be recreated using less than all of said information units and at least one of said at least one protection unit, wherein a data unit of a plurality of data units is defined as one or more information units of the plurality of information units, one or more protection units of said at least one protection unit, or a combination of one or more information units of the plurality of information units and one or more protection units of said at least one protection unit; and wherein each of said information units are included in at least one of the plurality of data units and each of said at least one protection unit are included in at least one of the plurality of data units; and initiating storage on each of the plurality of computers of at least one data unit of the plurality of data units such that each data unit in the plurality of data units is stored in at least one of the plurality of computers; wherein said generating and said initiating storage are performed by a particular computer of the plurality of computers; and wherein the method includes: the particular computer receiving an instruction to store said information from a different device, said instruction including said information and an identifier for use in storing said information.