Patent ID: 8291149

Claim:
A storage device implemented in a computer system that includes a host having a processor and an ATA controller, the storage device comprising: a casing configured to be compatible with a hard disk drive; a connector detachably connectable to the host in accordance with the ATA interface standard; a control section disposed in said casing and configured to control inputting and outputting of data between the storage device and the host via said connector in accordance with the ATA interface standard; a first storage section formed of flash memories disposed in said casing, connected to said control section, and configured to provide a first address space that is allocated with a lower portion of an address space allocated to the storage device as seen from said host, said first address space being arranged to store data of a system region for booting an operating system on the host, the data of the system region including a master boot record, a file management table, and the operating system; and a second storage section formed of a hard disk drive disposed in said casing, connected to said control section, and configured to provide a second address space that is allocated with an upper portion of the address space allocated to the storage device, said second address space being arranged so as to store application data to be used by an application operating on the host, and wherein the host is configured to read the data of the system region from the storage device and configure the operating system on the host based on the data of the system region; wherein the data of the system region is duplicately stored in both the first and second storage sections, wherein, upon booting of the host, said host reads data of the system region for booting the operating system from said first address space in said first storage section formed of flash memories and executes the read data to boot the operating system on the host, and wherein said control section is configured to, upon a normal shutdown of the operating system configured on the host, perform data transfer between the data of the system region stored in the first storage section and the data of the system region stored in the second storage section so as to restore any defective data of the system region stored in said storage device.