Disk Imaging via Sparse Virtual Disks and Loop-Back Mounting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing disk imaging technologies face limitations such as the need for capacity matching between source and destination disks, inefficiency due to storage of unused sectors, reliance on file system drivers, difficulties in handling open files and proprietary file systems, and challenges in hardware compatibility and image management across different hardware configurations.
Innovation Solution
A system that creates a unified image format using sparse virtual disks, allowing for sector-by-sector content differences while maintaining file system equivalence, and employs loop-back mounting to access and modify virtual disk contents, enabling efficient image capture and deployment without requiring special preparation of the source disk and supporting both physical and virtual machines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If sector-based image format is used to represent exact disk copy, then data recoverability is guaranteed, but destination disk must be at least as large as source disk and unused sectors are stored inefficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the allocated and used sectors from the source disk, excluding unused and free sectors from the image file. This selective extraction allows the image to be deployed to destination disks of varying sizes without requiring exact capacity matching, while still guaranteeing data recoverability for all actual data sectors.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the parameter of sector selection criteria from 'all sectors' to 'only allocated and used sectors'. This parameter change enables the image format to adapt to different destination disk sizes while maintaining reliability for restoring actual data, resolving the contradiction between exact copy requirement and size flexibility.
2Manufacturing precision
If all sectors including unused sectors are stored in image file, then exact disk representation is achieved, but storage efficiency decreases and image size increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and stores only the necessary sectors (allocated and used sectors) in the image file, deliberately excluding unused and free sectors. This extraction approach maintains accurate representation of all actual data while significantly reducing image file size by eliminating redundant empty space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent discards unused and free sectors from the image representation, as these sectors contain no useful data. During restoration, only the stored allocated and used sectors are recovered and written to the destination disk, achieving both storage efficiency and complete data recovery.
3Ease of operation
If file system driver is required to access proprietary file system, then file access is enabled, but software must run on specific operating system
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical system of file system drivers with a sector-based imaging approach. Instead of requiring OS-specific drivers to interpret file system structures, the system directly images sectors at the raw disk level, making the imaging process driverless and operating system-agnostic while maintaining full file access capability through direct sector manipulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a sector-based image file as an intermediary between the source disk and destination disk, eliminating the need for file system drivers. The image file serves as a universal intermediate representation that can be created and restored on any operating system without requiring proprietary driver support.
4Reliability
If offline imaging with secondary operating system is used, then open files problem is solved, but imaging process complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the complex mechanical process of offline imaging with a simpler sector-based approach. Instead of requiring secondary operating systems and complex boot processes, the system directly accesses and images sectors at the raw disk level, solving the open files problem through OS-independent sector-level access while dramatically reducing process complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system is disclosed that uses a dual loopback mounting mechanism to capture and deploy an image of a source disk with no need for the source disk to be loaded with special software or otherwise prepared. The image may be captured even where the source disk uses a proprietary file system. The invention also provides mechanisms to extract a system's hardware configuration from a static image of its disk, and to catalog, warehouse, reconfigure, customize, and deploy disk images on diverse computers. Still other mechanisms are provided to perform efficient physical-to-virtual, virtual-to-physical, and virtual-to-virtual system migration.