Patent ID: 7370165

Claim:
A system to protect data, comprising: a processor; at least one data storage device; a data protection controller, the data protection controller connectable to the processor for receiving read and write requests from the processor and for transmitting a result to the processor, and the data protection controller connectable to the at least one data storage device for controlling the use of the at least one data storage device; and computer logic embodied in the data protection controller, the computer logic and data protection controller to: divide a data space provided by the at least one data storage device into a protected data space, a virtual data space associated with the protected data space and an unprotected data space; present, to the processor only the protected and unprotected data spaces, so that the processor is unaware of the virtual data space during one mode of operation; accept read requests from the processor; determine if the read request is for data that is either in the protected data space or the unprotected data space; and if the read request is for data in the protected data space, processing the read request such that: only if requested data is not yet in the virtual data space, reading said requested data from the protected data space and writing said requested data into the virtual data space for future use; and if the requested data is in the virtual data space, reading the requested data from the virtual data space.