Patent ID: 7069351

Claim:
A storage device comprising: a processor; a computer interface communicably connected to the processor to enable the processor to communicate with a computer, a network interface communicably connected to the processor to enable the processor to communicate with a file server; and a storage means communicably connected to the processor; wherein the processor provides the computer read and write access to the storage means so that the computer may store user files on the storage means; and wherein the computer may request a non-user file from the processor and the processor either (1) provides the non-user file to the computer on a read-only basis if the file is cached on the storage means, (2) obtains the non-user file from the file server if the non-user file is available from the file server, caches the obtained non-user file on the storage means, and provides the obtained non-user file to the computer on a read-only basis, or (3) returns a file unavailable notice to the computer.