Patent ID: 7320052

Claim:
A method of providing seamless Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) in a computer comprising: launching a firmware interface with a host processor in the computer prior to loading an operating system; identifying a plurality of disks coupled to the host processor; retrieving a global variable from a nonvolatile memory coupled to the host processor to obtain a specific RAID technique for the computer; using the firmware interface to map the plurality of disks according to the specific RAID technique and publish a virtual disk interface for the plurality of disks; enabling the firmware interface to perform a read operation from two or more of the plurality of disks using the specific RAID technique designated in the virtual disk interface if the operating system has not fully loaded; and providing the virtual disk interface to the operating system to enable a commensurate software RAID to be utilized after the operating system is loaded that matches the specific RAID technique used by the firmware interface.