Patent ID: 7793168

Claim:
A computer program product of a computer readable storage medium usable with a programmable computer, the computer program product having computer-readable code embodied therein for detecting dropped write events in a data storage system, the computer-readable code comprising instructions for: receiving first data from a host; writing data, including the first data and at least a first checksum associated with the first data, to a storage device in a full stride write; classifying a state of the first data as being in a first “new data, unconfirmed” state; periodically checking the written data to determine whether a dropped write event has occurred; changing the state of the first data from the first state to a second “single dropped write confirmed” state if a dropped write event is detected during a periodic check; changing the state of the first data from the first state to a third “confirmed good” state if no dropped write event is detected during the periodic check; receiving second data from the host; if the second data is to be written to the storage device in a full stride write, generating at least a second checksum and writing the second data and the at least second checksum to the storage device in a full stride write; if the second data is to be written to the storage device in a read modify write (RMW): generating at least one RMW checksum and writing the second data and the at least one RMW checksum to the storage device in a read modify write; and changing the state of the second data from the second state to a fourth “unquantifiable” state.