Importance

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Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for avoiding accessing of defective locations in disks and other storage media. A disk file controller uses manufacturer-provided information about the location of defects to construct a sequentially ordered list of addresses of defective storage locations in the disk, and the list is stored in a table in the disk. During use of the disk, the disk file controller reads the table of defects into its memory and uses it to translate virtual addresses into real addresses. The translation process skips over real addresses of defective locations. The virtual address is translated into a real address by being incremented by the number of defects whose addresses are lower than the real address. Subsequent contiguous virtual addresses are translated into real addresses by being incremented by the number of contiguous defective locations that follow the location associated with the preceding virtual address. Addresses of new defects found during use of the disk are stored by the disk file controller in temporary storage on the disk and are incorporated into the defect table when the disk is taken out of service.

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First Claim