U.S. patent application number 12/168909 was filed with the patent office on 2009-07-23 for automatic backup method and computer system with automatic backup function.
This patent application is currently assigned to ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC.. Invention is credited to Chung-Jen Hong, Kuo-Ping Lu.
Application Number | 20090187720 12/168909 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 37619272 |
Filed Date | 2009-07-23 |
United States Patent
Application |
20090187720 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Hong; Chung-Jen ; et
al. |
July 23, 2009 |
AUTOMATIC BACKUP METHOD AND COMPUTER SYSTEM WITH AUTOMATIC BACKUP
FUNCTION
Abstract
An automatic backup method to deal with at least a backup data
is provided. First, offering a data-sync program and a wireless
transmission module driven by the data-sync program; transmitting a
first data stream to a first storage unit as a first file;
transmitting the first file to a second storage unit by a wireless
transmission module and stored as a second file in the second
storage unit, the first file being substantially equal to the
second file; and copying a third file to the second storage unit
and overwrites the second file therein when the first file is
modified to the third file but the second file is not modified
yet.
Inventors: |
Hong; Chung-Jen; (Taipei,
TW) ; Lu; Kuo-Ping; (Taipei, TW) |
Correspondence
Address: |
JIANQ CHYUN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OFFICE
7 FLOOR-1, NO. 100, ROOSEVELT ROAD, SECTION 2
TAIPEI
100
TW
|
Assignee: |
ASUSTEK COMPUTER INC.
Taipei
TW
|
Family ID: |
37619272 |
Appl. No.: |
12/168909 |
Filed: |
July 8, 2008 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
11426001 |
Jun 22, 2006 |
7415588 |
|
|
12168909 |
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
711/162 ;
707/999.202; 707/999.204; 711/114; 711/E12.001; 711/E12.103 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 11/1458 20130101;
G06F 11/1464 20130101; G06F 11/1451 20130101; G06F 11/2087
20130101; G06F 11/1456 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
711/162 ;
707/204; 711/114; 711/E12.001; 711/E12.103 |
International
Class: |
G06F 12/06 20060101
G06F012/06; G06F 12/00 20060101 G06F012/00; G06F 12/16 20060101
G06F012/16 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jul 11, 2005 |
TW |
94123327 |
Claims
1. An automatic backup method to deal with at least a backup data,
comprising: offering a data-sync program and a wireless
transmission module driven by the data-sync program; transmitting a
first data stream to a first storage unit as a first file;
transmitting the first file to a second storage unit by a wireless
transmission module and stored as a second file in the second
storage unit, the first file being substantially equal to the
second file; and copying a third file to the second storage unit
and overwrites the second file therein when the first file is
modified to the third file but the second file is not modified
yet.
2. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the first data
stream is copied to the first storage unit and the second storage
unit by means of mapping.
3. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the data-sync
program is stored in a RAID controller, and the RAID controller is
configured to operate in a RAID 1 mode (a disk mirroring mode).
4. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the data-sync
program determine whether the first file is modified according to a
file modification time.
5. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the data-sync
program further comprises at least a function option, and the
function option defines a first data folder of the first storage
unit as a sync data folder.
6. The automatic backup method of claim 5, wherein the data-sync
program is performed to copy the first data folder of the first
storage unit to the second storage unit and overwrite the original
data therein during a predetermined period of time.
7. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the first
storage unit is an internal hard drive and the second storage unit
is a portable external hard drive supporting the wireless data
transmission.
8. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the data-sync
program further performs a third step for copying a fifth file to
the first storage unit and overwrites the third file therein when
the second file is modified to the fifth file and the third file is
not modified yet.
9. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the data-sync
program instructs a first transmission rate of the first storage
unit to be equal to a second transmission rate of the second
storage unit.
10. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the wireless
transmission module comprises an IEEE 802.11b or an IEEE 802.11g
WLAN transmission module.
11. The automatic backup method of claim 1, wherein the first data
stream is provided by a CPU.
12. A computer system with automatic backup function to deal with
at least a backup data, comprising: a first data stream is
transmitted to a first storage unit and a second storage unit, the
first data stream is stored as a first file in the first storage
unit, and the first data stream is transmitted by means of wireless
transmission and stored as a second file in the second storage
unit, the first file being substantially equal to the second file;
and a third data stream is transmitted to the second storage unit
and overwrites the second file as a third file therein when the
first file is modified to the third file but the second file is not
modified yet.
13. A wireless automatic backup system, comprising: a remote
computing system having a first storage unit and a wireless module;
and a wireless storage unit connected to the wireless module of the
remote computing system; wherein the wireless automatic backup
system performs a backup step to overwrite a first file in the
first storage unit by copying a second file in the wireless storage
unit to the first storage unit.
14. The wireless automatic backup system of claim 13, wherein the
wireless automatic backup system further comprising: a second
remote computing system, said second remote computing system having
a second storage unit and a second wireless module; wherein the
wireless automatic backup system overwrites the second file in the
wireless storage unit by receiving a first data stream, said first
data stream is transmitted to the wireless storage unit when a
second data stream is transmitted to the second storage unit in the
second remote computing system.
15. An automatic backup system, comprising: a first sync data disk
drive in a first storage unit; a second sync data disk drive in a
wireless storage unit; and a program determining whether a file in
the first sync data disk drive is modified, and the program copies
the file in the first sync data disk drive to the second sync data
disk drive in the wireless storage unit during a predetermined
period of time.
16. The automatic backup system of claim 15, wherein said program
further having a function option for the purpose of selecting a
sync cycle used to configure said predetermined period of time.
17. An automatic backup method, comprising: a sync data folder mode
and a folder is selected by a user; browsing the folder and
configuring the folder as a first sync data folder; configuring a
second sync data folder in a second storage unit; and copying all
data in the first sync data folder to overwrite the second sync
data folder in the second storage unit when data in the first sync
data folder is modified.
18. The automatic backup method of claim 17, wherein said automatic
backup method further comprising: selecting a sync cycle used to
configure a period of time for automatic backup.
19. A computer-readable recoding medium for storing an automatic
backup program, said automatic backup program comprising the steps
of: providing a sync type for setting a automatic backup mode;
selecting a first disk drive to be mirrored if the selected sync
type is a disk mirroring mode; selecting a first folder to be a
sync data folder if the selected sync type is a sync data folder
mode; browsing said first disk drive or said first folder;
configuring a second disk drive or a second folder in a second
storage unit; and copying data in the first disk drive or the first
folder to overwrite the second disk drive or the second folder in
the second storage unit when data stored in the first disk drive or
the first folder is modified.
20. The computer-readable recoding medium of claim 19, wherein said
automatic backup program further comprising: selecting a sync cycle
used to configure a period of time for automatic backup.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation application of a prior
application Ser. No. 11/426,001, filed Jun. 22, 2006, all
disclosures is incorporated therewith. The prior application Ser.
No. 11/426,001 claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application
serial no. 94123327, filed on Jul. 11, 2005. The entirety of each
of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated
by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to an electronic device, and
more particularly, to an computer system with an automatic backup
or an overwrite file function.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] The applied techniques to the computer and data processing
are continuously changed. In addition to use the internal hard
drive to store a great amount of data, more data storage devices
connected to the computer or server by means of external
transmission are used for data back-up and storage now. The common
data storage devices, for example, include the memory card, the
flash portable disk, the recordable/rewritable optical disc, the
large capacity micro drive, or the disk array system.
[0006] Using the external hard drive as an example, a user stores a
data file in an external hard drive for the convenience of
carrying, and the external hard drive can be used as a data
transmission facility between two computers. For instance, the
incomplete work can be saved as a file into the external hard drive
in the office, and the external hard drive can be plugged into the
home computer to continue the office work at home. Meanwhile, the
system regards the external hard drive as a data storage unit and
read the data file from the external hard drive in order to revise
the data. In order to avoid the loss and damage of important data,
the user usually backs up more than one copy of the file with
important data into the internal hard drive of the computer, and
the data file will be named the same for easy recognition. However,
the above-mentioned backup operation is manually operated, which is
inconvenient to the user and error prone. Consequently, the files
cannot be easily shared.
[0007] FIG. 1 schematically shows a flow diagram illustrating the
operating principle of a conventional disk array system. The main
board 1 is exemplified herein. When a first data stream is provided
to a disk array controller 20 by a CPU (Central Processing Unit)
10, the first data stream is disassembled into a plurality of data
blocks 1.about.2N and stored into the hard disks of two disk drives
30 and 40. When the disk array controller 20 is configured to
operate in the RAID 0 mode, the data blocks 1.about.2N will be
equally disassembled into two portions and then respectively
written into the hard disks of the two disk drives 30 and 40. Since
these two disk drives 30 and 40 synchronously perform the read or
write operation on the data blocks 1.about.2N, the speed of data
backup can be doubled.
[0008] FIG. 2 schematically shows a flow diagram illustrating the
operating principle of another conventional disk array system. When
the disk array controller 1 is configured to operate in the RAID 1
mode, two copies of the data blocks 1.about.N are automatically
made and simultaneously written into the hard disks of the two hard
drives 30 and 40. Since both disk drives 30 and 40 store the same
data blocks 1.about.N, once one of the disk drive units is
malfunctioned, the same data blocks can be read from the other disk
drive, such that the data loss is avoided. Accordingly, the RAID 1
mode is also known as the disk mirroring mode.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide
an automatic backup process and an computer system with an
automatic backup function. With such a process, the user-modified
or default file can be automatically copied to the external data
storage unit so as to raise file-sharing capability and to
facilitate its users.
[0010] The present invention provides an automatic backup method to
deal with at least a backup data. First, offering a data-sync
program and a wireless transmission module driven by the data-sync
program; transmitting a first data stream to a first storage unit
as a first file; transmitting the first file to a second storage
unit by a wireless transmission module and stored as a second file
in the second storage unit, the first file being substantially
equal to the second file; and copying a third file to the second
storage unit and overwrites the second file therein when the first
file is modified to the third file but the second file is not
modified yet.
[0011] In accordance with the first and second embodiments of the
present invention, the above-mentioned first data stream is copied
to the first and the second storage units by means of mapping.
[0012] In accordance with the first embodiment of the present
invention, the above-mentioned data-sync chipset is, for example, a
RAID controller, and the RAID controller is configured to operate
in a RAID 1 mode (i.e. the disk mirroring mode).
[0013] In accordance with the first embodiment of the present
invention, the above-mentioned data-sync chipset and the driver
program determine, for example, whether the first file has been
modified according to a file modification time.
[0014] In accordance with the second embodiment of the present
invention, the above-mentioned driver program further comprises at
least a function option, wherein the function option defines a
first data folder of the first storage unit as a sync data
folder.
[0015] In accordance with the second embodiment of the present
invention, the above-mentioned data-sync program is performed to
copy the first data folder of the first storage unit to the second
storage unit and overwrites the data therein during a predetermined
period of time.
[0016] The present invention provides a computer system with
automatic backup function to deal with at least a backup data. A
first data stream is transmitted to a first storage unit and a
second storage unit, the first data stream is stored as a first
file in the first storage unit, and the first data stream is
transmitted by means of wireless transmission and stored as a
second file in the second storage unit, the first file being
substantially equal to the second file. A third data stream is
transmitted to the second storage unit and overwrites the second
file as a third file therein when the first file is modified to the
third file but the second file is not modified yet.
[0017] The present invention provides a wireless automatic backup
system, comprising a remote computing system having a first storage
unit and a wireless module; and a wireless storage unit connected
to the wireless module of the remote computing system; wherein the
wireless automatic backup system performs a backup step to
overwrite a first file in the first storage unit by copying a
second file in the wireless storage unit to the first storage
unit.
[0018] The present invention provides an automatic backup system,
comprising a first sync data disk drive in a first storage unit; a
second sync data disk drive in a wireless storage unit; and a
program determining whether a file in the first sync data disk
drive is modified, and the program copies the file in the first
sync data disk drive to the second sync data disk drive in the
wireless storage unit during a predetermined period of time.
[0019] The present invention provides an automatic backup method.
First, a sync data folder mode and a folder is selected by a user;
browsing the folder and configuring the folder as a first sync data
folder; configuring a second sync data folder in a second storage
unit; and copying all data in the first sync data folder to
overwrite the second sync data folder in the second storage unit
when data in the first sync data folder is modified.
[0020] The present invention provides a computer-readable recoding
medium for storing an automatic backup program, said automatic
backup program comprising the steps of: providing a sync type for
setting a automatic backup mode; selecting a first disk drive to be
mirrored if the selected sync type is a disk mirroring mode;
selecting a first folder to be a sync data folder if the selected
sync type is a sync data folder mode; browsing said first disk
drive or said first folder; configuring a second disk drive or a
second folder in a second storage unit; and copying data in the
first disk drive or the first folder to overwrite the second disk
drive or the second folder in the second storage unit when data
stored in the first disk drive or the first folder is modified.
[0021] In the present invention, the data-sync chipset copies the
modified first file (i.e. the third file) to the second storage
unit and overwrites the second file therein. Accordingly, same
files can be stored in two separate storage units so as to raise
file-sharing capability and to facilitate its users. In addition,
if a sync data folder is configured in the first storage unit, the
data-sync chipset can simultaneously write all of the files to the
second storage from the sync data folder unit by means of RAID 1
during a predetermined period of time, such that the loss and
damage of data are both avoided, and the data security is
improved.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION DRAWINGS
[0022] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further
understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and
constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate
embodiments of the invention, and together with the description,
serve to explain the principles of the invention.
[0023] FIG. 1 schematically shows a flow diagram illustrating the
operating principle of a conventional disk array system.
[0024] FIG. 2 schematically shows a flow diagram illustrating the
operating principle of another conventional disk array system.
[0025] FIG. 3 schematically shows a block diagram of an electronic
device with the automatic backup function according to a first
embodiment of the present invention.
[0026] FIG. 4 schematically shows a block diagram of an electronic
device with the automatic backup function according to a second
embodiment of the present invention.
[0027] FIG. 5 schematically shows a diagram illustrating the setup
function of the driver program.
[0028] FIG. 6 schematically shows a diagram illustrating the
data-sync chipset operation according to the present invention.
DESCRIPTION PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0029] FIG. 3 schematically shows a block diagram of an electronic
device with the automatic backup function according to a first
embodiment of the present invention. The electronic device 100
comprises a main board 110, a data-sync chipset 120, a first
storage unit 130, a wireless transmission module 140, and a second
storage unit 150. The main board 110 mainly comprises a CPU 112, a
memory, a south bridge/north bridge chipset, and a plurality of
transmission interfaces or high speed buses (not shown) for
providing the signal processing and operating voltage to the
computer peripheral devices. In addition, the data-sync chipset 120
disposed on the main board 110 is electrically coupled to the CPU
112 through the transmission interface of the main board 110, so as
to receive the data stream generated by the CPU 112 or other
controllers. It is to be noted that when the data-sync chipset 120
receives the first data stream from the CPU 112, a second data
stream is output from the data-sync chipset 120 to both the first
and the second storage units 130 and 150 simultaneously, so as to
accomplish the purpose of automatic backup.
[0030] As shown in FIG. 3, the first storage unit 130 is, for
example, an internal hard drive disposed inside a case 160 and
electrically coupled to a first terminal of the data-sync chipset
120, and the second storage unit 150 is, for example, disposed
outside of the case 160. In addition, the wireless transmission
module 140 is, for example, a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network)
module, a Bluetooth transmission module, or an infrared
transmission module, which is disposed on the main board 110 and
electrically coupled to a second terminal of the data-sync chipset
120. Both of the data-sync chipset 120 and the wireless
transmission module 140 are controlled and driven by a driver
program 122, such that the second data stream is stored in the
first and second storage units 130 and 150, wherein the second data
stream is stored in the first storage unit 130 as a first file F1,
and another second data stream is stored in the second storage unit
150 as a second file F2 by means of wireless transmission after it
is assembled into a packet. Here, the first file F1 is
substantially equal to the second file F2. That is to say, both F1
and F2 share the same file name, same file content, and same file
size. When a user opens an application program to edit the first
file F1, if the first file F1 is modified and stored as a third
file F3 which has the same file name as the first file F1, and the
second file F2 has not been modified yet, the data-sync chipset 120
will determine that the second file F2 should be modified at the
same time, and then the data-sync chipset 120 copies the third file
F3 to the second storage unit 150 and overwrites the second file F2
therein, so as to accomplish the purpose of automatic backup. On
the contrary, when the second file F2 in the second storage unit
150 is modified as a fifth file F5 (not shown), the data-sync
chipset 120 copies the fifth file F5 to the first storage unit 130
and overwrites the third file F3 therein.
[0031] Moreover, the first storage unit 130 further comprises a
fourth file F4. For example, the fourth file F4 is copied from a
floppy disc or a USB device to the first storage unit 130.
Meanwhile, the data-sync chipset 120 instructs the first storage
unit 130 to copy the fourth file F4 to the second storage unit 150
by means of mapping through the wireless transmission module 140,
so as to accomplish the purpose of automatic backup.
[0032] FIG. 4 schematically shows a block diagram of an electronic
device with the automatic backup function according to a second
embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5
in the present embodiment, the first storage unit 130 has a sync
data folder S1 storing the data and files which the user expects to
backup. The data-sync chipset 120 writes the data into the sync
data folder S1, and when the file in the sync data S1 is modified,
the data-sync chipset 120 automatically reads all the data in the
sync data folder S1 and simultaneously copies the data therein to
the sync data folder S2 in the second storage unit 150 through the
wireless transmission module 140, so as to accomplish the purpose
of automatic backup.
[0033] FIG. 5 schematically shows a diagram illustrating the setup
function of the driver program. The driver program 122 further
comprises a function option which has a pull down menu for the
purpose of selecting the sync type, the disc indicator, and the
sync cycle. Here, the sync type is used to configure the automatic
backup operation mode; namely, the disk mirroring mode and the sync
data folder mode. The pull down menu of the sync cycle is used to
configure the time for automatic backup. The second embodiment is
exemplified herein for description, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.
When the sync data folder mode is selected by the user, the content
of the first storage unit 130 can be furthered browsed, and a data
folder in the first storage unit 130 is configured as the sync data
folder S1. When the data in the sync data folder S1 is modified,
the data-sync chipset 120 and the driver program 122 copy all data
in the sync data folder S1 of the first storage unit 130 to the
second storage unit 150 and overwrite the original data therein, so
as to accomplish the purpose of automatic backup.
[0034] FIG. 6 schematically shows a diagram illustrating the
data-sync chipset operation according to the present invention. In
the first embodiment, the data-sync chipset 120 is, for example,
embodied by a RAID controller, and the RAID controller may be
configured to operate in the RAID 1 mode (i.e. the disk mirroring
mode). Here, when the CPU 112 outputs a first data stream to the
data-sync chipset 120, the data blocks 1.about.N are automatically
duplicated in two copies and the two copies are respectively
written into the first storage unit 130 and the second storage unit
150. A second data stream is stored as a first file in the first
storage unit 130, and another second data stream is assembled into
a package by the wireless transmission module 140 and stored as a
second file. In RAID 1 mode, the same data are stored in different
hard drives. Accordingly, the same data can be maintained in two
storage units 130 and 150 to avoid the data loss or damage.
[0035] In accordance with the method mentioned above, if the second
storage unit 150 is a portable external hard drive supporting the
wireless data transmission, a user can first backup the incomplete
work file to the second storage unit 150 in the office, and then
the data file can be read from the second storage unit 150 at home
in order to revise the office work. Once the user goes to the
office again, the second storage unit 150 can be connected to the
main board 110 through the wireless transmission module 140;
meanwhile, the data-sync chipset 120 can backup the modified file
to the first storage unit 130 (i.e. the internal hard drive) for
the purpose of data sync. Accordingly, in the electronic device 100
provided by the present invention, the driver program 122
determines whether the file is modified by a file modification
time, and the driver program 122 copies the files in the sync data
folder S1 during a predetermined period of time, such that the data
security is improved.
[0036] In the method of transmitting the second data stream to the
second storage unit 150 through the WLAN transmission mentioned
above, the WLAN transmission method, for example, comprises an IEEE
802.11b or an IEEE 802.11g WLAN transmission whose transmission
rate is about 54 Mbits/sec. If the first storage unit 130 is an
internal hard drive, the transmission rate is about 150 MBytes/sec.
To support the data sync process, if the transmission rate of the
first storage unit 130 is much higher than the transmission rate of
the second storage unit 150, the driver program 122 and the
data-sync chipset 120 must change the transmission rate of the
first storage unit 130 to the transmission rate of the second
storage unit 150. In other words, the data sync process had better
to be performed when both storage units have the same transmission
rate.
[0037] In summary, since the data-sync chipset is used in the
present invention, the modified first file (i.e. the third file)
can be copied to the second storage unit by means of RAID 1 and
overwrite the second file therein. Accordingly, same files can be
saved in two different storage units so as to raise file-sharing
capability and to facilitate its users. In addition, if a sync data
folder is configured in the first storage unit, all of the files in
the sync data folder can be simultaneously written into the second
storage unit during a predetermined period of time by means of
automatic data sync, such that the data loss or damage is avoided,
and the data security is further improved.
[0038] Although the present invention has been described in terms
of exemplary embodiments, it is not limited thereto. Rather, the
appended claims should be constructed broadly to include other
variants and embodiments of the invention which may be made by
those skilled in the field of this art without departing from the
scope and range of equivalents of the invention.
* * * * *