Bruce H Harmon

US Patent:

6584544, Jun 24, 2003

Filed:

Jul 12, 2000

Appl. No.:

09/614820

Inventors:

Steve Morley - Upton MA
Bruce Harmon - Northboro MA
Don Hon - Fuquay Varina NC

Assignee:

EMC Corporation - Hopkinton MA

International Classification:

G06F 1200

US Classification:

711114, 711170, 714 45

Abstract:

An apparatus and method for preparing a disk for use in a disk array, the disk array including an input/output control processor, the disk including sectors, the sectors including a data area and a metadata area, the method comprising defining a range of sectors to prepare for use in the disk array, sending a command to the disk from the input/output control processor, the command instructing the disk to write a block of initial state data to each sector in a group of sectors on the disk, the group of sectors on the disk located within the range of sectors on the disk, and writing the block of initial state data to each of the sectors on the disk. The block of initial state data comprises a bit stream of data for writing to the data area and the metadata area of each sector.