System for transparently compressing data files in a computer system
US5414850A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 23, 1991 |
| Grant date | May 9, 1995 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 23, 2011 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F16/1744
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A data compression device driver compresses and decompresses files on a disk drive in a computer system when a user copies files from a drive letter assigned to the disk drive to a drive letter assigned to the data compression device driver. Drive parameter blocks for the disk drive and for the data compression device driver contain the assigned drive letter, disk geometry information, a rebuild flag, and a pointer to the device driver. A swapping means swaps the device driver pointers in the drive parameter blocks corresponding to the disk drive and the data compression device driver. From then on, compressed data files may be accessed transparently by using the drive letter which was originally assigned to the disk drive before swapping, which now refers to the data compression device driver.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.