Patent ID: 7127556

Claim:
A storage system for use in a computer system including a host computer, the storage system comprising: at least one storage device having a plurality of user-accessible storage locations, the at least one storage device including at least one disk drive; a cache memory; and a controller, coupled to the cache memory and the at least one storage device, that controls access to the at least one storage device from the host computer, so that the at least one storage device is accessible to the host computer only via the controller, the controller being capable of generating data that is independent of any data passed from the host computer to the storage system and writing the generated data to at least two non-contiguous user-accessible storage locations on the at least one storage device in response to a communication from the host computer that specifies the at least two non-contiguous user-accessible storage locations and does not include the generated data to be written to the at least two non-contiguous user-accessible storage locations, without writing the generated data to at least one user-accessible storage location disposed between the at least two non-contiguous storage locations so that any data in the at least one user-accessible storage location is preserved.