Patent ID: 8230170

Claim:
A data storage system, comprising: N groups of storage devices, N being an integer larger than 1, each group of storage devices having a respective retained volume and respectively being specified in one selected from the group consisting of RAID 0 architecture, RAID 1 architecture, RAID 3 architecture, RAID 5 architecture, RAID 6 architecture, RAID 10 architecture, RAID 1E architecture, RAID 50 architecture, RAID 30 architecture, RAID 60 architecture, Hyperspeed RAID architecture, and JBOD architecture; a controller, respectively coupled to each storage device, for controlling access of a plurality of batches of data to the storage devices; a group management table, coupled to the controller, for storing logical locations of each group of storage devices and at least N sets of condition thresholds which each set of condition thresholds relates to one of the N groups of storage devices; a data management table, coupled to the controller, for storing virtual drive locations of the batches of data mapping the logical locations of the storage devices and a plurality of use information which each relates to one of the batches of data; and a judging module, respectively coupled to the controller, the group management table and the data management table, for judging if the use information of one of the batches of data satisfies the set of condition thresholds relative to the group of storage devices where said one batch of data is stored, and if NO, the controller re-allocating said one batch of data to a retained volume of one of the group of storage devices whose condition thresholds are satisfied by the use information of said one batch of data, and updating the virtual drive locations of said one batch of data mapping the logical locations of the storage devices in the data management table.