Patent ID: 7308602

Claim:
A method for reconstructing lost data from a failed disk drive in an array of disk drives while streaming data to at least one user, said disk drive array formed into at least one parity group, wherein each parity group comprises data extents divided into data segments and parity segments that are generated from the data segments, said method comprising: providing access to data stored on said array of disk drives; identifying said failed disk drive; identifying a failed parity group associated with said failed disk drive; retrieving the parity segments from operative disk drives in a parity group containing the failed disk drive in an instance of reading data from said failed parity group; reconstructing parity information for the failed disk drive from the parity segments on the operative disk drives; and reconstructing data segments of the extent associated with the failed disk drive from the reconstructed parity information, and the parity segments and data segments on the operative disk drives of the failed parity group.