Software Recovery Method for Flash Media with Defective Formatting

Abstract

A method and software program for recovering data from corrupted flash media. In one aspect, the method employs a low-level access scheme that enables data to be recovered when high-level interfaces, such as file systems, are damaged. The type of flash media is determined, and a corresponding access scheme is employed. Depending on the type of damage to the media, a physical-to-logical table may be built and employed to sequentially access the flash media in search of indicia from which selectable file-types can be identified, or the media may be accessed using normal operating system commands. Once the file indicia are found, the location of corresponding file data is identified, whereupon the file data are read and stored. The software program employs an application program interface (API) comprising one or more sets of pass-through commands to enable low-level access to the flash media and to build the physical-to-logical table.

1 - 10 . (canceled) 
   
   
       11 . A system comprising:
 a computing device;   a mass storage media;   an adapter to interface the computing device with the mass storage media; and   a firmware to perform operations to recover data from the mass storage media comprising:
 determining a validity of a master boot record and a disk boot record; 
 selecting one of a first physical sector, a first logical sector, and a data area as a starting sector depending on the validity of the master boot record and the disk boot record; 
 accessing raw data stored on the mass storage media using a low-level access mechanism; 
 searching the raw data beginning with the start sector for file indicia corresponding to a selected file type; and 
 reading data from the raw data based on information in the file indicia, said data comprising a recovered file. 
   
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 defining an application program interface (API) comprising a plurality of respective sets of pass-through commands, each respective set to enable the firmware to low-level access a particular media type of mass storage media corresponding to that set of pass-through commands; and   building a physical-to-logical table with the firmware using the set of pass-through commands corresponding to the media type of the mass storage media.   
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the adapter is removable from the computing device. 
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the adapter is integrated with the computing device. 
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the computing device is a cellular telephone. 
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the computing device is a personal digital assistant (PDA). 
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the mass storage media comprises an optical recorded medium. 
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the mass storage media comprises a DVD drive. 
   
   
       19 . A system comprising:
 a computing device;   a mass storage media;   an adapter to interface the computing device with the mass storage media; and   a firmware to perform operations to recover data from the mass storage media comprising:
 determining a media type of the mass storage media; 
 building a physical-to-logical table mapping physical storage locations to logical storage locations based on the media type of mass storage media; 
 accessing raw data stored on the mass storage media using the physical-to-logical table; 
 searching for a file header corresponding to a selected file type; 
 reading data from the raw data based on information in the file header, said data comprising a recovered file; and 
 defining an application program interface (API) comprising a plurality of respective sets of pass-through commands; and building the physical-to-logical table with the firmware using the set of pass-through commands. 
   
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein each respective set of pass-through commands enables the firmware to low-level access a particular media type of mass storage media corresponding to that set of pass-through commands, and wherein the set of pass-through commands corresponds to the media type of the mass storage media. 
   
   
       21 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the adapter is removable from the computing device. 
   
   
       22 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the computing device further comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port. 
   
   
       23 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the mass storage media comprises an optical recorded medium. 
   
   
       24 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the mass storage media comprises a DVD drive. 
   
   
       25 . A method for recovering data from a storage media comprising:
 determining a type of the storage media;   building a physical-to-logical table mapping physical storage locations to logical storage locations based on the type of storage media;   accessing raw data stored on the storage media using the physical-to-logical table;   searching for a file header corresponding to a selected file type; and   reading data from the raw data based on information in the file header, said data comprising a recovered file.   
   
   
       26 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 defining an application program interface (API) comprising a plurality of respective sets of pass-through commands, each respective set enabling low-level access to a particular type of storage media corresponding to that set of pass-through commands; and   building the physical-to-logical table using the set of pass-through commands corresponding to the type of the storage media.   
   
   
       27 . The method of  claim 25 , further comprising:
 providing a computing device to perform the determining, the building, the accessing, the searching, and the reading; and   providing an adapter to interface the computing device with the storage media.   
   
   
       28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the recovered file is an image. 
   
   
       29 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the storage media comprises an optical recorded medium. 
   
   
       30 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the storage media comprises a DVD drive.