Patent ID: 7213103

Claim:
A method of accessing data from a plurality of storage devices, wherein said method comprises: receiving a request to access data, wherein at least a first portion of said data is stored in a first storage device, and at least a second portion of said data is stored in a second storage device; initiating first and second data-access operations respectively on each of said first and second storage devices to respectively access said first and second data portions; determining whether at least one of said first and second data-access operations has successfully completed within a predetermined time interval; determining whether access to at least one of said first and second data portions can be provided without waiting for at least one of said first and second data-access operations to successfully complete when said determining determines that at least one of said first and second data-access operations has not successfully completed within said predetermined time interval; marking at least one of said first and second data portions as a slow-access portion when said determining determines that at least one of said first and second data portions has not successfully completed within said predetermined time interval, rewriting said slow-access portion after said marking; determining whether said slow-access portion can be read within a second predetermined amount of time after said rewriting; and remapping said slow-access portion when said determining determines that said slow-access portion cannot be read within said first or second predetermined amount of time.