Granted Patent B1

US 7,757,228 · App. 10/787,366 · Granted Jul 13, 2010

Abstract

Claims (30)

1. A method for writing an image to a storage device of a computer system, the method comprising:

receiving an image on the computer system, wherein the computer system has a current operating system and includes a hard drive having a file system;

storing the image on the computer system;

using an imaging tool to read the image from the computer system by making read calls to a temporary file system and write the image to the hard drive of the computer system through a use of the temporary file system, wherein the temporary file system is implemented at a BIOS level through a use of an interrupt, wherein the temporary file system is transparent to the imaging tool, wherein the temporary file system is not the file system of the hard drive, and wherein the imaging tool writes the image to the hard drive of the computer system such that the imaging tool accesses the image from a same partition of the hard drive as to which the imaging tool is writing the image.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the image is stored on one or more partitions of the hard drive of the computer system without using the file system.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising running an imaging operating system that is different than the current operating system, wherein the imaging tool operates on the imaging operating system.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the imaging operating system comprises DOS.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising sending the image from an administrative system to the computer system.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the image is multicast by the administrative system.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the image is stored on an unformatted partition of the hard drive and on the final sectors of the unformatted partition.

8. A computer-readable medium for storing program data, wherein the program data comprises executable instructions for writing an image to a storage device of a computer system, wherein the executable instructions are for:

running an imaging operating system on the computer system, wherein the computer system has a current operating system that is not running, and wherein the computer system further includes a hard drive having a file system;

receiving an image on the computer system;

storing the image on the hard drive of the computer system without using the file system; and

writing the image to the hard drive of the computer system using an imaging tool, wherein the image is read from the computer system by the imaging tool making read calls to a temporary file system and the image is written to the hard drive of the computer system through a use of the temporary file system, wherein the temporary file system is implemented at a BIOS level by redirecting access of one or more storage devices, wherein the temporary file system is transparent to the imaging tool, wherein the temporary file system is not the file system of the hard drive, and wherein the imaging tool writes the image to the hard drive of the computer system such that the imaging tool accesses the image from a same partition of the hard drive as to which the imaging tool is writing the image.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the imaging operating system comprises DOS.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein executable instructions are further executable for communicating with an administrative system via a computer network.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the image is stored on an unformatted portion of the hard drive which is on final sectors of one or more partitions of the hard drive.

12. A system for imaging a computer system, the system comprising:

an administrative computer system in electronic communication with a computer network, wherein the administrative computer system comprises:

an image for use with a target computer system; and

an imaging server for managing imaging processes on other computers;

the target computer system in electronic communication with the computer network, wherein the target computer system comprises:

a computer-readable medium that is part of the target computer system or is in electronic communication with the target computer system, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions for the target computer system to write the image to a storage device, wherein the instructions are for:

running an imaging operating system on the target computer system, wherein the target computer system has a current operating system that is not running, and wherein the target computer system further includes a hard drive having a file system;

receiving the image from the administrative computer system;

storing the image on the hard drive of the target computer system without using the file system; and

writing the image to the hard drive of the target computer system using an imaging tool, wherein the image is read from the target computer system by the imaging tool making read calls to a temporary file system and the image is written to the hard drive of the target computer system through a use of the temporary file system, wherein the temporary file system is implemented at a BIOS level by redirecting access of one or more storage devices, wherein the temporary file system is transparent to the imaging tool, wherein the temporary file system is not the file system of the hard drive, and wherein the imaging tool writes the image to the hard drive of the target computer system such that the imaging tool accesses the image from a same partition of the hard drive as to which the imaging tool is writing the image.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the imaging operating system comprises DOS.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the image is stored on an unformatted partition of the hard drive which is on final sectors of the unformatted partition.

Assignments (22)