Patent ID: 8623099

Claim:
A system for securing data within a storage system, comprising: multiple storage devices; a security monitoring unit that recognizes an attempt to insert or remove any of the multiple storage devices; a management unit that controls the insertion and removal of the multiple storage devices, wherein the management unit responds to a recognized attempt to remove a storage device of the multiple storage devices by: determining whether a copy of data on the storage device will remain in the storage system; and disengaging a locking mechanism associated with the storage device to allow removal of the storage device from the storage system only if a copy of data on the storage device will remain in the storage system; and a failure and prediction unit, wherein the failure and prediction unit prevents the removal of the storage device from the storage system if the failure and prediction unit determines that the removal would have a negative impact on the storage system, wherein the negative impact is based on prediction of imminent failure of hardware components or software components within the storage system.