Patent ID: 8090904

Claim:
A device for detecting reduced capacity of a stand-alone hard drive having a host protected area or hard-drive-device-configuration-overlay table that has been modified to reduce the hard-drive accessible capacity, the device comprising: a bridge including a controller having a processor and memory, the memory storing instructions executable by the processor; a hard-drive-connection mechanism coupled to the bridge and configured to be connected to the hard drive to provide data communication between the bridge and the hard drive when the hard-drive-connection mechanism is connected to the hard drive; an indicator for providing sensory output; wherein the bridge is configured to obtain information from the hard drive when the hard-drive-connection mechanism is connected to the hard drive and the bridge is not connected to a host computer, and the controller is configured to parse the information obtained from the hard drive by the bridge to detect reduced accessible capacity in the hard drive and activate the indicator to provide sensory output indicating detection of reduced accessible capacity.