Patent ID: 6944063

Claim:
A method of operating a non-volatile memory having an array of memory cells organized into blocks of cells that are erasable together as a unit and which individually store a plurality of pages of user data, comprising: (a) storing overhead data within the individual blocks of information relating to the operation of the block in which the overhead data are stored, (b) an erase operation, including, addressing one or more of the blocks for erase, reading the overhead data from said one or more blocks and temporarily storing the read overhead data, erasing the memory cells within said one or more blocks, updating the read overhead data, and programming the updated overhead data back into respective ones of said one or more blocks, thereby to leave the pages within the one or more blocks available for programming user data therein, wherein the updated overhead data are programmed into spare cells of a single page of the respective ones of said one or more blocks, (c) thereafter programming user data into pages of said one or more blocks.