Discardable File Management for Storage Allocation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Unsolicited content stored in storage devices without user consent occupies valuable space, reducing available storage for user files and causing inconvenience, as existing solutions either block publishers' access or rely on publishers to remove irrelevant content.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a file management system that marks files as non-discardable or discardable, with discardable files being removed when they threaten to reduce the storage usage safety margin, ensuring user files have priority storage space, and using a primary and discardable File Allocation Table (FAT) to manage storage effectively.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If publishers store unsolicited content in user storage devices, then publishers can increase their income through predictive consignment, but user available storage space is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments storage space into user-controlled areas and publisher-controlled areas, allowing publishers to store unsolicited content without encroaching on user file storage. The file system is divided into different regions with distinct access permissions, enabling simultaneous coexistence of user files and publisher content.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts publisher content management from the user's control domain by implementing a separate publisher file system with dedicated storage areas. Publishers can independently manage their content storage and retrieval without requiring user intervention, effectively removing the conflict between publisher income generation and user storage availability.
2Quantity of substance
If publishers are blocked from accessing storage devices, then user storage space is protected, but publishers lose potential income source
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by granting different access permissions to different storage regions. User files in the user-controlled area remain protected from publisher access, while publisher content in the dedicated publisher area is freely accessible to publishers. This localized permission structure resolves the contradiction by allowing income generation in one region without compromising user space in another.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a publisher file system as an intermediary layer between publishers and user storage devices. This intermediary manages all publisher-content related operations, including storage, retrieval, and deletion, without requiring direct publisher access to user files. The intermediary enables income generation while maintaining user storage protection.
3Quantity of substance
If publishers remove irrelevant content from storage devices, then storage space is freed, but publishers must continuously monitor and manage content relevance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service by enabling publishers to automatically manage their own content lifecycle. The publisher file system allows publishers to upload, store, and remove content based on their own relevance criteria without requiring external monitoring or user intervention. This automated self-management reduces the complexity of continuous content monitoring while maintaining effective storage space utilization.
Data Source
AI summary
The present application includes methods and system for managing a storage device. In one implementation, a storage allocator that is present in a host or a storage device receives a request to store a file in a storage area of the storage device. The storage allocator marks the file as discardable in a file system structure associated with the storage device and updates a primary file allocation table (“FAT”) to associate a cluster chain that is allocated to the file with the file. The storage allocator additionally updates a discardable FAT or a database to reflect a physical location of the file, or may generate one or more location files that store the physical location of the file. The storage allocator then manages the storage area device based on the FAT and a discardable FAT, database, or one more location files indicating the physical location of the file.