System and method for data preservation and retrieval
View Patent ↗A system and method for searching for computer environments, authenticating the computer environments, and copying data from the authenticated computer environments to a memory location. The data is marked or bound to the computer system it was copied from which provides a user with assurance that the data was obtained from a specific, authenticated source. The computer environments and the memory location may be coupled over a network.
1. A method for gathering data comprising:
searching for storage devices coupled to a computer environment by communicating with an agent discovery service;
receiving from the agent discovery service network configuration information for enabling communication with at least one of the storage devices;
authenticating the at least one of the storage devices based on a first predetermined criterion;
searching the authenticated at least one of the storage devices for data;
sorting the data using a second predetermined criterion;
binding the matching data to an entity that collected the matching data; and
presenting a user with a list of sorted data.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer environment is a network.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first predetermined criterion is a digital certificate.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first predetermined criterion is a public key.
5. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining whether the user is authorized to access the storage devices.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the storage devices are disk drives.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the second predetermined criterion comprises a file type.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the second predetermined criterion comprises data created by an application defined by the user.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the second predetermined criterion comprises the at least one of the storage devices upon which the data was found.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising allowing the user to define the first predetermined criterion.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the second predetermined criterion is metadata.
12. The method of claim 1 wherein the first predetermined criterion is a plurality of criteria.