Patent · US Expired

Method for manipulating disk partitions

US5706472A · kind A · utility

76Cited by
15References
38Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 7, 1995
Grant dateJan 6, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 7, 2015

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F3/0676
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method allows non-destructive manipulation of disk partitions defined by an IBM-compatible partition table. The disk partitions may be located on one or more disks attached to one or more disk drives. Each partition has an associated file system type. An interrupted manipulation may be resumed at a point in the progress of the manipulation near the point of interruption. Available manipulations include verifying the integrity of a partition's file system structures; displaying information about a partition; moving a partition to a different location; resizing a partition; and resizing the file system clusters. The resizing steps are illustrated with particular reference to file systems which use a file allocation table. The details required to perform these manipulations are attended to by an implementing program that requires only general direction from a user. Thus, the present invention provides a method that allows users who are unfamiliar with technical intricacies to easily manipulate IBM-compatible disk partitions, including extended partitions and logical partitions.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.