Method for simulating the presence of a diskette drive in a NetPC computer that contains only a hard disk drive
US6029237A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 8, 1997 |
| Grant date | Feb 22, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 8, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F3/0674
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system and method for re-mapping a logical reference to a computer storage device to another storage device. The computer includes a processor for running operating system code, RAM, and a hard drive memory device. The computer does not, however, have a floppy disk. The hard drive, which can be accessed by the processor, includes at least two partitions. When the computer boots up, operating system code running on the processor includes a first logical reference to the first partition of the hard drive and a second logical reference to the non-existing floppy disk. The logical references are stored in a table, located in RAM. If software routines running on the processor ever use the second logical reference, an error would normally occur. However, a reference-changing routine is provided for changing the logical reference from the non-existing floppy disk to the second partition of the hard drive. The reference-changing routine does this by altering the table with data from the second partition so that when the logical reference to the second storage device is used, the second partition of the first storage device is accessed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.